


Dimensional Differences

by goldenspecter



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: All the 2018 turtles are autistic no i wont take criticism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Autistic Donnie, Canon Rewrite, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mikey Has ADHD, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Bonding, TCEST DNI, Trauma, correction all the turtles are autistic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26705803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenspecter/pseuds/goldenspecter
Summary: They bow. Not like one of those pretentious bows like she would do at Yokai parties and not like the ones she would do with her brothers when they hosted tea parties. They bowed deeply, heads stopping at her stomach, one hand closing around their fists. This spoke of respect and honor.And that unnerved her a little bit. Why are they bowing so deeply?“Thank you,” they said in unison. It’s unnerving to April and she felt the uneasiness coming from her brothers too.“Why are you thanking me?” She said finally, voice sounding foreign to her.“You saved my life?” Baby Leo said slowly, voice tinged with confusion. “That was an honorable thing to do?”April blinked, “It shouldn’t be considered honorable for doing what any big sister would do,” she said. “That’s not honor, that’s just being a good older sibling.”In which April, Sunita, Casey, and the turtles end up in the 2012 verse after a mishap with Leo's ōdachi and stay with the 2012 turtles until they can go home. They find out a lot of things that don't quite jive with them. Some things are the same, some things are different and they're not quite sure how to handle those differences.
Relationships: April O'Neil/Sunita (TMNT), Casey Jones & April O'Neil (TMNT), Casey Jones/April O'Neil/Sunita (TMNT), Donatello & Karai & Leonardo & Michelangelo & Raphael (TMNT), Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & April O'Neil & Raphael (TMNT), Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & Raphael (TMNT), Karai & April O'Neil (TMNT)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 241





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The turtles and April have a mishap with Leo's portals. Cue April hitting the Shredder with a bat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!!! I'm writing fanfiction, even though I shouldn't be since I'm in my senior year of college and I have too many papers to write this semester but I watched/rewatched ROTTMNT and I have to cope with the show ending. I wrote 4 chapters of this within 24 hours, so lets see how this goes. 
> 
> In the ROTTMNT timeline, the entirety of the show takes place over the course of two years, much like the runtime of the show itself. Every episode is canon but there are some alterations that happen and here they are: Gram-Gram Karai's spirit is at rest, but April still somehow maintained the part of Karai that knows ninpo and nijutsu., Raph is still the leader. April, Casey, and Sunita are dating. The kids are two years older than when the show started/ended. 
> 
> Within the TMNT 2k12 timeline, the fic starts at over halfway through S1EP 9 "Into the Gauntlet"
> 
> 2012!Turtles= Baby Raph, Mikey, Leo and Donnie  
> 2018! Turtles = short names.

It had been several weeks since the Shredder’s been defeated, Gram-Gram Karai's spirit has been laid to rest with her father, Casey joined the Mad Dogz, and Baron is one of the good guys now—they weren’t sure about Casey’s senseis’. April somehow retained Gram-Gram’s spirit(not Gram-Gram herself but the part that knows ninpo and crazy good at ninjutsu). Raph was the leader again. Everything had been going okay since the people of New York had been returned. They rebuilt the lair-it wasn’t quite the same since before Shredder destroyed the lair, Splinter and Draxum started more serious training regiments with the six children plus Sunita and within a few weeks, they all improved drastically. 

The bad guys, of course, didn’t stop being bad guys. Raph, Leo, Mikey, Donnie, April, Sunita, and Casey, swung back and fought as hard as they were able to, and at some point, the fights became less of an adrenaline-filled challenge and more of a chore. The kids didn’t mind ‘easier’ fights but they started to resent how often Meat Sweats would try to eat them, how often Hypno would try to make one of them disappear, how often Warren Stone would try to become their arch-nemesis through lame and downright pathetic attempts to get the kids to notice him. 

  


They’ve already had Draxum and the Shredder as their arch-nemesis. They didn’t need another one for a long, long, long time.

  


The turtles were walking April, Casey, and Sunita back to the sewer after the girls had served detention for helping Casey defend herself in a fight against some of the more violent delinquents. 

  


“Shelldon and I would love to teach those punks a lesson,” Donnie said with a menacing grin. “Shelldon nearly killed me without hesitation so I know he won’t have any reservation with those kids.”

  


“Aww thanks, Dad,” Shelldon said, his voice staticy with emotion. “That’s so nice of you to say.”

  


“I’ve said my one nice thing for the evening, I am glad that I used it on you,” Donnie said. 

  


“I’m sorry he what?!” Casey shrieked, her voice pitchy with her classic overenthusiasm mixing with confusion. 

  


“Yeah,” Leo drawled, “We messed with his circuitry since he favored Donnie, and Shelldon got really murderous. He almost succeeded.” 

  


“But he didn’t!” said Mikey jovially, “Donnie rebuilt him so now he’s not murderous anymore!”

  


Casey stopped walking, still trying to process the information. “He tried to kill you,” she pointed at Shelldon, then Donnie. “And you’re all okay with being close to the robot? What if he tries to kill you again?”

  


“Didn’t you do the exact same thing to us?” Raph asked calmly, which got a ‘Heck yeah she did!’ from April and Sunita while Mayhem purred in agreement from April’s backpack

  


Casey’s cheeks grew a dark red, “It’s not the same!” she sputtered loudly, stomping her feet and flailing her arms around wildly for several seconds. Raph and Mikey raised an eyebrow before her shoulder slumped over and she took a deep breath, “Yea, it’s the same.”

  


Raph patted her shoulder, “People deserve second chances, Casey. Including you,” He said gently. He knew this song and dance. He knew that she was about to on her long rant that she didn’t deserve a second chance for helping the Shredder capture and torture their father. 

  


She looked up at him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Raph hugged her back and soon Mikey, Leo, Sunita, and April joined. Donnie rolled his eyes before Raph pulled him in the group hug. 

  


The hug lasted for a long while, eventually, the kids pulled away from each other. The seven teens resumed walking before they came across Hypno and Meat Sweats working together in a darkly lit alley. They all lined up along the corner of the building leading into the alley.

  


“What should we do?” Mikey said.

  


“I’m thinking we leave it,” Leo said, “Doesn’t involve us at the moment.” 

“That’s wack, Leo,” April said, summoning her green baseball bat. “We can’t just leave these two to whatever they’re up to. I know it reeks of such awful vibes.”

  


“How do you know?” Sunita asked. 

  


“Gram-Gram gifted me the ability to do a vibe check,” April joked, chuckling a little.

  


“Really?!” Sunita said, her eyes lighting up with mirth. 

  


“She’s just pulling your leg Sunita,” Donnie said with a deadpan expression. 

  


“I don’t feel my legs being pulled?” Sunita said, confusion on her face. She looked down, back up, and noticed that Mikey was gone. “Where’s Mikey?”

  


_ “BOOYAKASHA!” _

  


Raph looked up and saw that Mikey was over Meat Sweats and Hypno, wildly swinging his repaired kusari-fundo, aiming it at the two villains and wrapping his weapon around the two. Raph swore quietly, running in headfirst with his tonfā, punching Hypno while avoiding Meat Sweats tendrils. He heard the others come swing into the fight and it hadn’t taken them long to defeat the two and send them running back to where they came from. 

  


Raph did a quick headcount to make sure everyone was still there, rolling his shoulder to alleviate the pain that was there for when Meat Sweats hit him with his silver meat tenderizer. Donnie looked over, concern flashing in his eyes and Raph smiled, letting his brother know that he was okay. 

  


April pulled herself up off the ground and leaned over on Sunita to keep herself upright, “Man, I don’t think I can take another step,” she groaned. “Splinter and Draxum have kept us on our feet for so long.”

  


Leo pulled out his ōdachi, doing his thing and a portal showed up. “Here’s our way home, no extra walking included,” He bowed preemptively, “You’re welcome.”

  


Casey looked at Leo warily, “Are you sure you have that thing under control?” 

  


The turtle in question turned to look at her, eyebrows raised in something similar to irritation. “You can walk the long way home while we take this nice short cut if you’re going to be like that!”

  


The former Foot recruit shook her head, taking one of April’s arms and draped them over her shoulder. She looked at Sunita, who nodded and began walking, towards the portal and the Turtles followed suit. 

  


As soon as the three girls stepped through the portal, April unlinked her arms from around their shoulders and gave them each a kiss on the cheek, “Where would I be without you two?” she said, “Splinter! We’re….home?”

  


This wasn’t lair but she could still recognize it as New York from the skyline that she had become so familiar with, but something was wrong with this place and she wasn’t quite sure what it was. The others noticed(“Leo, how did we get portal jacked again?!” “My wonderful twin, I do not know!!”) and just as soon they were about to get into their typical routine of bickering, something caught all of their eyes. 

  


There was another turtle, wearing a blue mask just like Leo, pressed against him against the wall, a metal prong slowly protruding out from the other person’s gauntlet until it touched the turtle’s skin. There are three other turtles, each one of them wearing Raph, Don, and Mikey’s masks, piled on the floor, and unable to move. Their plastrons were badly scratched, bruises and cuts were plastered across their skin and they were helpless to look on at the other turtle being pressed against the wall. 

  


“Tell me where Splinter is and I’ll make your demise quick,” the voice said, deep and gravelly. Her first thought was Shredder, but this guy couldn’t be the Shredder because he was gone. April can’t shake off how wrong this feels, how unsettling hearing this person’s voice, and the fear that she had when she and her family fought the Shredder.

  


But right now she can’t let her fear consume her, there was a turtle in need of help. Summoning her mystic bat, she jumped into a run, Casey, and Sunita following after her. The moonlight illuminated the glowing green hellfire of her bat as she pulled her arms back and swung her back at the silver helmet gleaming in the moonlight. She smirked as her bat made contact with the helmet and took satisfaction in the hard clink that resounded through the air. 

  


She took deep heavy breaths as she landed on her knees and watched out of the corner of her eyes as the man flew away from Leo and landed on the ground next to the other turtles. April slowly stood up again, Casey and Sunita pulling her up, she heard the heavy footsteps of Raph behind her and she knew that her brothers were standing behind her. 

  


The armored man turned around and the first thing April noticed is that human eyes are hiding behind that helmet. Good. She can deal with that, she can make him bleed. The second thing she noticed is how the armor is shaped exactly like the Shredder. April ignored the fear thrumming in her heart, and the soles of her feet aching as he got up and sauntered towards her. 

  


“I’ve fought you before,” she said, voice clear and unwavering. She was the oldest out of her siblings, she couldn’t and wouldn’t show fear to this coward. “I will make you bleed.”

  


“You sound confident for what will be the last moments of your life,” he said, receiving a face full of Donnie’s drill and flying back several feet. He got back up and his face narrowed at Donnie and April clenched her bat tighter, the hellflame growing brighter.

  


“You mess with our sister,” Donnie began.

  


“You mess with us,” Leo, Raph, and Mikey chorused together. The four turtles took on battle positions, weapons primed and ready to give this armored bastard a beatdown. 

  


Casey readied her hockey stick/spear while Sunita pulled off her cloaking broach, revealing her slime yokai form. “Us too,” they said together. 

  


Their attention was taken away from the Shredder doppelganger when they saw a large red Asian fish with two sharp fangs and stick-like arms and a tall golden Akita with a large left arm and spikes all over his body. 

  


“Is it bad that I want to pet the doggie?” Mikey said.

  


“Yes Mikey,” Donnie said. “They are probably going to try and kill us, per the usual.”

  


“Master Shredder,” the fish gasped, splashing some glowing aqua liquid. April was certain not to let any get on her since she was positive it would spell trouble for her. “Help us.”

  


Shredder looked on at the fish and dog in disgust. April saw the disdain and hatred mar his already hateful body, turning that burned half of his face into something truly contemptuous. She looked behind him and she saw that the turtles had escaped, but she knew that they hadn’t gotten that far away. Not after something like this. 

  


The kids are primed, ready to fight when the Shredder looked at them, then looked at the two new yokai, and ordered them along to follow him. They all watched as the three dropped off the building and disappeared into the night. 

  


Mikey was the first to jump into her arms, “Are you okay? He didn’t get you did he?”

  


April knows that his voice is slightly trembling, remembering how their Shredder slashed at Donnie’s shell, how he nearly slashed through Raph’s and all the unending anxiety and terror that he had caused them. She kissed his forehead, silently letting him know that she was okay. 

  


“We should check on those turtles,” She said, “They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  


“Found them,” Casey said, leaning over the building. “They’re over here on the stairs.”

  


The other turtle with the blue mask, he has to be Leo, pulled himself over the building, wielding his katana as he eyed them all warily. 

  


“Who are you?” he asked, and April has to resist the urge to pinch on his cheeks because he sounds like a baby, a literal baby. 

  


“It seems that we are you,” Donnie began to explain, motioning to the group. “But from another dimension.”

  


“That sounds like Donnie’s thing,” Baby Leo said slowly, lowering his katana. Turning his head sideways, he called out to his other brothers, “Guys! You can come out!” 

  


The other Raph, Mikey, and Donnie all come up, rightfully distrustful of them but they all do something that shocks her. 

  


They  _ bow.  _ Not like one of those pretentious bows like she would do at Yokai parties and not like the ones she would do with her brothers when they hosted tea parties. They bowed deeply, heads stopping at her stomach, one hand closing around their fists. This spoke of respect and honor. 

  


And that unnerved her a little bit. Why are they bowing so deeply?

  


“Thank you,” they said in unison. It’s unnerving to April and she felt the uneasiness coming from her brothers too. 

  


“Why are you  _ thanking  _ me?” She said finally, voice sounding foreign to her. 

  


“You saved my life?” Baby Leo said slowly, voice tinged with confusion. “That was an honorable thing to do?”

  


April blinked, “It shouldn’t be considered honorable for doing what any big sister would do,” she said. “That’s not honor, that’s just being a good older sibling.”

  


“Yea!” Mikey said in agreement, popping up behind her. 

  


“We should go back to the lair,” Baby Donnie said, “We can’t fight like this.”

  


“You can barely walk,” Raph said, taking a few steps forward. He held out a hand. “I can carry you back.”

  


Baby Donnie’s red eyes squinted at Raph before chuckling tiredly. “That’s a good joke.”

  


“I wasn’t joking,” Raph said. 

  


Baby Donnie looked up at Mikey who nodded and gave a thumbs up. Baby Donnie took Raph’s hand, lifted him over his shoulders and took Baby Mikey into his arms. 

  


“There’s room for one more,” Raph said, waving his other arm in front of Baby Raph. 

  


“I’m not no stinkin’ baby,” Baby Raph groused grouchily, folding his arms together and looking away from his larger counterpart. “I can take care of myself.”

  


April raised an eyebrow before she swooped Baby Raph from under his legs and caught him in her arms before he fell. “I’m the oldest and you’re being carried, damn it.”

  


Baby Raph blushed and hid his face from her. She looked at Baby Leo, who held his hands up in surrender. “You’re riding with Donnie,” she said. 

  


At that Donnie, started up his battle shell, the rotors of the drone emerged out of his shell and he hovered up several feet. “Grab on,” he said. Baby Leo grabbed onto his legs, and held on tightly. 

  


“Let’s go to the lair!” April called out, and everyone began the trek back to the sewers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang meets Splinter, sleeping arrangements are decided and breakfast is cooked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2018!Turtles = short names  
> 2012!Turtles = full names/Baby (Raph, Mikey, Donnie, Leo)

The trip back to the lair was quiet. Somewhat at least. 

Sunita was pretty excited by the fact she got to meet another version of the turtles and constantly asked questions so she could get to know them better. Baby Mikey and Baby Donnie took part in Sunita’s inquiries while Baby Raph still grouched in April’s arms and Baby Leo’s face scrunched up like Raph’s when he’s deep in thought.

The group make it to the entrance of the lair and when April takes a step down into the common area, she’s met with a kick that she easily dodged. 

“April stop!” Baby Raph called out and she stopped immediately, “She’s good.” 

Other April lowers her arms, her eyebrows furrowing in concern at Baby Raph’s current state. Then she saw the others, her blue eyes growing big in worry, “What happened?”

“We fought the Shredder,” Baby Leo said. 

“You fought the Shredder?!” another voice yelled out, stepping out from a room and April had to do a double take. That’s _Splinter?_ He’s...so tall and put together. Tall Splinter took long strides to reach April and Other April, he looked down at Raph, then up at his other sons and April saw the heartbreak in his eyes. 

“Why aren’t you short?” Leo blurted out, “You’re supposed to be short Pops.”

Splinter looked at Leo, “Is my vision failing me?” He asked, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn’t losing his mind, “Why are there eight turtles in this lair?” 

“It’s Leo’s fault,” Donnie said, ignoring Leo’s glare. 

“They’re us but from a different dimension!” Baby Donnie explained. Pointing at April, “She landed a hit on the Shredder that let us get away.”

“It was a glowing green bat too!” Baby Mikey interjected, voice filled with awe. “You can’t forget that it was glowing. It was awesome.”

Tall Splinter looked at April, “Is this true?” 

“Yep,” she said, popping her lips on the p. She let Baby Raph down on the sofa. Raph and Donnie did the same with the others and began tending to their injuries. April summoned her mystic baseball bat, and held it out in front of Splinter, “This is Cherry, my precious bat.”

Splinter reached out to touch the bat but pulled his arm back just before he could wrap his fingers around it. His gaze shifted from the bat to the girl and he can sense the fire that burns deep within herself. “I see,” he said slowly, “Let us discuss how you arrived here while your friends-”

“Family,” April corrected automatically. “They’re my family. 

The rat nodded in apology, “Your family will sit with my sons and tell me how you came to get here?”

April nodded, turning around to shoo Sunita and Casey to sit on the sofa. As the baby turtles got their wounds dressed by her brothers, she recounted how they had come to be there and ended up fighting the Shredder. 

Splinter turned his attention to Leo, “Your weapons brought you here, correct?” Leo nodded, “Is there any way you can use it to go back home?”

“I can try?” Leo sliced the air in a circular motion with his ōdachi. A bluish-white portal appeared in front of Leo. Sticking his hand in the portal, he saw his hand come out through a different on across the portal. “I did it!”

“We’re not going through that again,” Donnie said, booking no room for argument in his voice. “It's too risky. We could end up getting portal jacked again.”

“They could stay here?” Baby Leo suggested quietly, “They did save my life and my brothers’. It’s only honorable we repay them for their services.”

Splinter doesn’t say anything before nodding his head. “You can sleep in the dojo tonight, we can figure this out in the morning.”

“Thank you,” April said, the others gave their thanks and when they finished attending to the Baby Turtles' wounds, they headed into the dojo. Splinter gave them some spare blankets, bid them good night and closed the door behind him. 

“What was with that honor stuff?” Leo said as soon as the door was closed, “I wasn’t the only one creeped out by that right?”

Casey nodded, “I know I go on about honor sometimes, but holy shit that was something else,” she said, looking at Sunita, who raised an eyebrow in confusion, she went on. “Honor’s like a huge thing in Japanese and Chinese culture and it’s important that people act with honor.”

Sunita tilted her head, still not getting it. “I...see,” she said. 

Leo scoffed, “No you don’t.”

“I don’t.” She agreed. 

Raph laid out one of the bigger blankets on the floor and laid down on top of it. He gestured for the others to come pile on top of him and they did. Mikey threw himself on top of his shell while Leo and Donnie curled around Raph’s shell. April, Sunita, and Casey curled up on the opposite side of Raph’s shell, Sunita and Casey burying themselves into April’s warmth. 

Donnie tossed everyone a blanket. “I hope we go home soon.”

“Me too,” Casey murmured, “What was with that fish and dog?”

“Akita,” Donnie corrected, “It’s an Akita.” 

“I still wanted to pet him,” Mikey whined, and Raph reached up to pat him on the head. “What was with that weird glowy liquid?”

“Whatever it was, I hope we don’t find out,” Raph said, “It looked like trouble.”

“Might be what’s mutating people here, instead of the oozesquitoes,” Donnie guessed as she stifled a yawn. “Still it would be bad to come into contact with it.”

“Let’s go to sleep,” Raph said, “We’ll deal with it in the morning.”

Soon, they all fell asleep and managed to sleep a dreamless sleep. 

Sunita and Mikey were the first to wake up. Casey was second, with Leo waking up not too long after that. They could thank their overly hyperactive personalities for that. 

* * *

Mikey wanted food, so he decided to go into the kitchen and see what he could cook up. He opened the fridge and he was disappointed to say the least. There was nothing that he could cook with! “Casey,” he hissed out. 

“What?”

“There’s no food to cook with,” he complained. 

“So?” she said, shrugging her shoulders, “What do you want us to do about it?” 

“Go topside obviously! We need ingredients so I can work my food magic!!” Mikey said. 

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll wake up the others.” 

Casey went back into the dojo, woke the others, and they all slowly trickled out of the dojo. April, Sunita and Casey brushed their teeth, while Donnie started fiddling with his gadgets to figure out where the closest grocery store was. 

“Okay, I've found some grocery stores that’s a few blocks away,” Donnie said, “But what are we doing to do about this?” He gestured to himself and his brothers.

“You can just tell us what you need over the phone while we go inside?” Sunita suggested as she pinned her cloaking broach to her chest, donning her human disguise. 

“That works,” Donnie said. “Let’s go.”

It didn’t take long for them to get to one of the grocery stores. The boys stuck to the shadows while the girls went inside. April adjusted her earpiece and started looking around. Sunita went off to gawk at some of the other food items and Casey followed along to answer her questions/keep her out of trouble. 

“What on the list Mikey?”

_“Eggs, but get the large ones! Flour, some oil, butter, bacon,”_ Mikey counted off. _“Oh and some juice!! Don’t forget the syrup!”_

April picked up the items, a few of each of them as well as some utensils, headed over to the counter, stopping midway as she pulled out her wallet, “Damn it,” she muttered, I don’t have enough money on me.”

_“Donnie said he predicted that would happen, so he wired you some money,” Mikey said, “He also said don’t ask where he got the money from.”_

“Of course he did,” she said as she paid for the items. The cashier bagged the food, April thanked them and headed out of the store, Casey and Sunita following along after her. 

The girls headed into the alley, calling out for the turtles. Raph, Donnie, Mikey and Leo slid out of the shadows, and cheered as she held up the items in her hands. 

“I get to work my food magic!” Mikey said, “Awesome! Let’s go back to the lair, hopefully everyone is still asleep.”

“They won’t be if you keep shouting like that,” Leo deadpanned, “If astronauts could hear you in space, then so can the other turtles.” He kicked open the manhole cover and they all went back down into the sewer. 

The walk back to the lair was quick, and just as Mikey hoped, the others were still sleeping. Mikey went to cooking, Raph and April helping him cook while Leo, Donnie, Casey and Sunita sat at the table and discussed Jupiter Jim movies. 

Soon, the sweet aroma of Mikey’s cooking wafted throughout the lair, and the other turtles, Splinter, and April are wide awake and trail into the common area. 

“Mikey, is that you cooking?” Baby Leo asked, tying his mask around his face, “Whatever it is, it smells really good.”

“I’m right here bro,” Baby Mikey said, “It’s not me.”

“It’s me!” Mikey announced, stirring the eggs in the skillet. “I’m cooking us all an amazing breakfast! I’m almost finished! Sit!!”

The Baby Turtles sit down at the table with Tall Splinter sitting at the end of the table. As Mikey finished cooking, April and Raph started fixing plates and handing them out to everyone. Once they fixed their own plates they sat down at the table and started eating. 

“Michelangelo,” Tall Splinter said, after chewing on some pancakes, “This is delicious. Thank you for the wonderful breakfast.”

“Call me Micheal!” Mikey said. “Speaking of which, what should we call each other? That’s Leon, Raphie, Donald or Donnie, Casey and Sunita.” The box turtled pointed to each one of his family members as he introduced them. 

“You can call me Apes,” April said. 

“Well, we often go by our full names,” Baby Donnie said while tinkering with an invention. 

“I’ve just been calling you guys Babies,” April said, with a shit eating grin, “Cuz you look like babies, how old are you guys?”

“We’re all fifteen,” Baby Leo answered. “We all have the same Mutation Day.”

“Oh, you’re the same age as Mikey then! Definitely babies,” April said, her grin growing wider as Baby Raph growled at the notion of being referred to as a baby. “Mutation Day?”

“It’s the day they were mutated,” Splinter explained. 

“I see. So you’re all quadruplets?” Donnie said. Raph nodded and Donnie slowly nodded along before turning to Leo, “We’re twin’s in this dimension, are you happy now?”

“Immensely, my fellow twin-”

“For the last time we are not twins!” Donnie snapped, but he can’t help the small grin that took over his face. 

“You’re twins?” Donatello answered, “That’s impossible, you’re not the same species of turtle?”

“That’s what I keep telling him but he doesn’t listen,” Donnie complained. 

“Not to be rude, but how are you going back to your dimension or wherever you came from,” Raphael asked, “I’m certain more trouble’s gonna come the longer you stay here.”

“Well, we could use my ōdachi,” Leo said, creating a portal with the sword, “But Donnie would say that it would be too unstable, we could risk getting portal jacked, we might not end up back in our dimension and that we would have to wait until he created a machine that could pinpoint our world and take us there safely.”

“You have been listening,” Donnie said, wiping a fake tear from his eye. 

“Thank Jupiter Jim,” Leo snarked playfully. 

“It seems that you’ll be staying here for a while,” Splinter mused. “I wouldn’t mind letting you all sleep in the Dojo at night and letting you train with my sons. The Shredder will probably be planning something since he knows that you exist now. ”

“We can sleep out here,” Casey said, “We’re cool with that.”

“This Shredder looks like a punk ass bitch,” Apes said, “We can take him on again and win.”

Tall Splinter looked up at her in shock, “You fought the Shredder and won? Not many fight him and live to tell the tale.”

“Does it help that he was a demonic beast?” Micheal added.

“No,” Splinter said, “It does not. Still, it does not matter but the Shredder is dangerous nonetheless and he won’t stop until he has killed us all. If you are to stay here until you go home, you will be training with us.”

“Will we be learning how to control our ninpo?” Raphie asked, “We’re still getting the hang of it after the big fight.”

“I am afraid I don’t know what that is, Raph,” Splinter said. Raph pulled his fork and knife, closed his eyes and soon the fork and knife had transformed into a bright red, transparent pair of sai. 

Splinter’s eyes lit up in amazement but schooled his features to remain neutral, “That’s quite impressive. Can all of you do that?”

“We can’t,” Casey said pointing at herself and Sunita.

“That was awesome!” Michelangelo shouted, around some pancakes in his mouth. 

Donatello started on at Raph, who powered down and resumed eating, “That’s impossible, there’s no logical reason for that to happen,” He started, “What would the implications even be?”

Donnie looked on, “Yea, it takes a minute to wrap your head around it,” he said, picking up a piece of bacon and bit into it. Donatello went quiet, possibly trying his best to wrap his mind about the existence of what appeared to be magic to him. 

The group finished eating, and Micheal went about washing the dishes, with some help from Casey and Leo. Afterwards, the group had decided to go top side so that they can get a better layout of this New York. Splinter had tried to stop them but they were adamant on exploring this version of New York. 

“Fine,” He said, “But my sons will keep you company and if you run into trouble, you do not engage, do not fight. You come straight back to the lair.”

That seemed agreeable, “Okay,” Casey said, “We can do that.”

It was time to go topside and see what this New York had to offer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They gang sees what 2012 New York has to offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2018!Turtles = short names  
> 2018!April = Apes  
> 2012!Turtles and April = full names
> 
> This is the shortest one so far, sorry about that.

“I wish we had the Turtle Tank,” Raphie complained, as they trekked through the sewers. “Would make this a lot easier.”

  


“Turtle Tank?” Donatello asked. 

  


“It’s how we get around New York. No one bats an eye when they see it, ‘cept the bad guys,” Apes explained. “Only problem would be where we would put it?”

  


“I might have something that might help,” Donatello said, waving them over to an abandoned subway car. He hopped in and told the others to get in. “I’ve been tinkering around with this bad girl, but she’s not fully functioning just yet so there may be some hiccups.”

  


Sunita caught a glimpse of a pink crystal in a canister, “What is that?” she asked.

  


Leonardo looked on before turning to Donnie, “Are you Using Kraang tech for this?” He snapped, “Are you serious?”

  


“I didn’t have anything else!” Donatello snapped back. 

  


“What if the Kraang finds out that you have it? They’ll hunt us down for it!”

  


“It’s not like they’re already hunting us down for it,” Donatello groused, pulling the lever and starting the car.

  


“Maybe we shouldn’t be fighting? We’re supposed to be having a good time?” Raphie suggested, feeling small with the other turtles gave him a weird look. “What?”

  


“It’s just really funny that you’re the one who’s suggesting for peace,” Donatello said simply, “I’d thought you’d be itchin’ for a bruisin’.”

  


“Well I’m not?” Raph countered, “And as the oldest brother and leader,”

  


“You’re the leader?” Leonardo asked, and Raph can hear the disbelief in his voice. “And you all aren’t dead yet?”

  


“Are you trying to say my big brother can’t lead us?” Donnie said, voice cold. “Choose your words wisely.”

  


April stood between the two, pushing them away from each other, “Come guys, let’s not fight.”

  


Donnie glared at Leo before pulling back from April and went to sit with Raph, who was uncharacteristically quiet, and comforted his big brother in a hushed whisper. The ride was quiet and Donnie stopped the subway at some point. Everyone crawled out of the car, and went up the ladder, pushed away the manhole cover and went topside. Donnie kept a mental note of where the car had stopped. 

  


Once they stepped foot on the surface, Apes, April, Sunita and Casey went into the clothing store around the corner and came back out with some clothes, mainly hoodies and sweatpants for the turtles. She handed out the clothes to which her brothers eagerly took and put on, and was met with confusion from the other turtles. 

  


“So you can blend in with the humans,” she explained. Michelangelo eagerly took an oversized hoodie and pants and put them on. Leonardo and the others followed in suit. 

  


“I’ll admit, this is way easier than sneaking around on rooftops,” Donatello confessed. 

  


Adjusting the sleeves of his black hoodie, Rapheal said, “Better than hidin’ in the shadows with you dorks.”

  


“You love us though!” Michealango replied. 

  


Raphael rolled his eyes, “Let’s get this over with so I get back to Spike,” he grumbled. 

  


“Who’s Spike?” Raphie asked.

  


“His pet turtle,” Leonardo answered. “He loves him dearly, more than us at the very least. You should hear him when he talks to Spike.”

  


“Can it Lame-o-Nardo,” Raphael growled.

  


Sunita didn’t understand a lot about how humans interacted but she did know when she saw a fight was going to break out if she didn’t do something. She wrapped her arms around Leonardo and Rapheal, a gleeful smile painted on her face as she pointed out the alley and into the behemoth that was New York, “Let’s get to touring!” she said excitedly, pumped to see all the differences between here and her New York. “That’s how you say it right?”

  


Casey and Apes laughed, “Sure Sunita.”

  


Sunita wasn’t entirely sure she said it right but she didn’t care as they started walking the streets of New York. 

  


She got to see their favorite pizza places, April’s place, April’s school(“The place of learning and puberty,” Donnie whispered in awe). as well as some of the places the turtles liked to frequent. When they came to some of the more dangerous locations that housed the bad guys, she held April’s hand tightly, remembering how they had to fight Meat Sweats to get her cloaking broach back. April squeezed back and gave her a soft smile. 

  


“I’m still here,” April whispered in her ear. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  


Her ears got hot and she turned away from April. 

  


The group had managed not to run across any bad guys, which was a surprise for all of them, but they were very careful not to jinx it. They decided to hit a few stores and the junkyard to grab a few things and had made it back to the lair with no incident and were greeted with Splinter waiting for them at the entrance to the lair. 

  


“How was your adventure?”

  


“It was fun Sensei!” Michelangelo smiled, “We got to show them our favorite pizza places, where April lives and where not to go! We even managed to get some stuff from the junkyard and stores” 

  


“I’m glad you all seemed to enjoy yourselves. I’ll be meditating if you need me,” Splinter said, heading off into his room to do exactly that. 

  


Michelangelo turned and saw his other self staring at him in confusion. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked. 

  


“Why do you call your pops Sensei?” Michael asked.

  


“Because he’s our sensei?” Leonardo answered. “Do you not call your Splinter Sensei?”

  


“Rarely,” Micheal asked, “We just call him Dad or Pops, even when we’re training.”

  


It seemed to be one of those differences that they wouldn’t reconcile, so for now, everyone silently agreed to leave it alone.

  


“Would you like to watch a Jupiter Jim movie with us?” Apes asked, “Before you ask who that is, he is the awesomest, coolest space man to ever exist.”

  


“If you exclude the fact that he tried to nerve pinche us to be in his gallery,” Leon grumbled. “And he had done the same to other people.”

  


“I’m sorry  _ what?” _ Apes and April asked in unison. 

  


“Yea, it was a whole thing,” Mikey said nonchalantly, “Donnie had to open up our mint copy of the first issue of Jupiter Jim comic to rescue us.”

  


“You’re kidding me right?” April asked, wiping away some stray strands of hair out of her face. 

  


“I wish we were,” Donnie lamented, “Our mint copy! Ruined!”

  


“At least you still have us,” Raph assured. 

  


“But at what cost?” 

  


“That sounds like the time I met Chris Bradford and he nearly killed me and my brothers,” Michelangelo said wistfully. “Still sad that he got turned into such a dangerously fluffy doggie.”

  


“Akita,” Donnie and Donatello corrected. 

  


“Still fluffy,” Michelangelo protested. 

  


“I’d love to but I need to run though some katas,” Leonardo said. 

“No,” Apes said, “You all just got beat up really badly-”

  


“Which is why we need to train-”

  


“You need to rest your bodies and heal,” April finished, leveling an intense glare at Leonardo, who backed up from her passive-aggressiveness.

  


“Fine,” Leonardo said, “One movie!”

  


Turned out, Leonardo grew a soft spot for Jupiter Jim and demanded that they watch several more of Jupiter Jim movies. They all watched some more of the spaceman’s movies until it was time for dinner, settling on a plain pizza since April and Casey refused to try out Michelango’s more unique preferences. 

  


They ate dinner and managed to finish a few more movies before everyone decided to break away and do their own thing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The turtles spend some time with their counterparts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2018!Turtles = short names  
> 2018!April = Apes  
> 2012!Turtles and April = full names
> 
> Up next we'll have some girl time! Not quite sure what direction to take this whole thing in, so I love to hear some ideas on where this should go next!

Raphael went into his room, slamming his door behind him, drained from the events of today. All he wanted to do was talk to Spike and read his comics when he was interrupted by a knock on the door and Raph poked his head in. 

“What do you want?” Raphael snapped. 

“I wanted to meet your pet turtle, Spike. If that was okay with you,” Raph said, giving him a toothy hopeful smile. 

He didn’t want to deal with this version of him anymore tonight. The other hadn’t done anything wrong to make him mad but he felt like he was at the end of his rope and one more thing would make him lose his mind. 

“It’s Spike’s decision,” Raphael said. If Raph couldn’t come in, then it wasn’t his fault. “Spike, take a bite of your lettuce if you want Raphie to come in the room.” 

Spike looked up at Raph, stared deep into his eyes and slowly leaned down and took a bite of lettuce. Raphael swore soft enough so the other wouldn’t hear, “Come in,” he gestured. 

Raph sat on the floor next to Raphael's bed, who brought Spike and his lettuce down to the larger turtle. Raphie gently cupped the small turtle in his hands and couldn’t repress a screech of joy when the pet nuzzled his cheeks. 

“He likes me!” Raph said happily, softly scratching the turtle’s head. 

Raphael looked away from the two. Maybe he’s not all that bad if Spike warmed up to him so quickly and actually nuzzled him. “He’s really picky on who he hangs out with, he doesn’t hand out nuzzles lightly,” He said.

“I’ll cherish it forever,” Raph said, holding Spike close to your chest.

“Is it true that you’re the leader?” Raphael asked suddenly, “And that you’re the oldest?”

“Why does everyone seem so shocked that I would be the leader?” Raph question, “Do they think that I would be a bad big brother?” 

“Because I’m always angry and impulsive,” He said bitterly. “They think I’d lead them to their doom or something like that.”

“It must be tiring,” Raph said quietly as he fed Spike, “Carrying all that anger all the time,”

Raphael stared at Raph, “You’re not angry?”

“Not really?” Raph said with a shrug. “I used to be as a kid, kinda, not really, but I would get really mad and accidentally hurt my brothers because I didn’t realize how strong I was at the time. Pops taught me some martial arts and some knitting so I can learn how to control my anger. It takes a lot to get me really mad.”

“Oh,” Raphael said quietly, it had to be nice not to be angry all the time. He wished he knew how that felt. He wanted to spend time with his family without feeling on edge, he wanted to hug Michelangelo and carry him around playfully like Raph did last night. He wanted to interact with his brothers outside of training. He wanted to be around his brothers and not feel seconds away from snapping, to not feel like he was on the verge of hurting his brothers. Master Splinter had tried so many times to teach him breathing and calming techniques to quell his anger only for it to be thrown out the window when one of his brothers had angered him in some way or when he fought with Leonardo. His brothers had slowly became afraid of him, he had no idea how to respond to that other than more anger and violence and had only found solace in his punching bag and Spike, the only things in this lair that wouldn’t judge him for his outbursts of anger. “I wish that was me.”

“It can be,” Raph offered.

“I’ve tried, okay!” Raphael snapped finally. Maybe it was because he felt like he was being judged by this other version of him and maybe he was afraid of not being considered worthy of whatever Raph had to offer. “I’ve tried breathing exercises, I’ve tried meditation and it doesn’t work!” 

Raphael took heavy breaths when he finished, green eyes wide and blown with frustration. He wanted, he _yearned_ to interact with his brothers like a normal turtle. How come he was the one who had so many bad feelings? How come he was the one who didn’t get how to handle it? How come he couldn’t engage with his brothers without that wall of anger cropping up between him and everyone else. And this turtle came into his room, mocking him with the idea of being _normal_ like his brothers and Splinter, it wasn’t fair. 

“Does Spike get cold?”

“What?” His frustration was replaced with confusion. 

“Does Spike get cold?” Raph asked again. 

He got a jerky nod in return. “We don’t really get heating down here, so he gets cold sometimes. Especially during the winter.” 

“I can knit him a sweater if you would like?” Raph offered, sitting Spike on his lap and pulling out his needle and yarn. 

“Yea! That is, if you want to,” Raphael said, hiding behind a facade of indifference. “You don’t have to tho.”

“I’ll make him several sweaters in different colors and styles,” Raph said, starting to knit, “This one will make him look like a shark.”

“Awesome.”

“How did you meet Spike?” He asked, surprised when Raphael sat down next to him and resumed feeding Spike his lettuce. Raphael held Spike in his arms, feeling more at ease and calm as he started talking, recounting how he’d met Spike. 

Maybe this Raph wasn’t all that bad.

* * *

It was incredibly easy for Donnie to find Donatello’s lab. He simply followed the scent of science, chemicals, and innovation, and there he was, in Donatello’s lab. 

“This is a place of science, of innovation!” Donnie cackled, manically. 

“Thank you,” Donatello said smugly, temporarily lowering his welding torch from his current project. “I take pride in my work.”

“It’s a bit bare though,” Donnie noted, “Where’s the titanium? The uranium?”

“Sensei won’t let me have any uranium,” Donatello complained through his mask. “Imagine what I could create if I did!”

“A better bo staff for one.”

“Sensei said it’s better I don’t rely on my tech so much,” Donatello said. 

Donnie waved him off, twirling around his tech bo. “Bah humbug!” He said, “Impossible! Mixing tech and ninjutsu is one of the greatest things one could ever do!”

“I don’t know,” Donatello said. “It could go wrong.”

Donnie rolled his eyes, “Fine, we won’t put as many features on yours as mine.”

* * *

Mikey, was really liking his counterpart. They had the same ideas, same thought patterns, same everything! Finally someone who could appreciate his genius ideas. That wasn’t to say that his brothers and April never appreciate his ideas. 

Michelangelo showed him some of his comics and Mikey looked on in awe at the condition they were in, “This would make Donnie proud,” he said, “He'd make a comment saying it’s nothing like his but he’d still be awed at the condition of these comics.”

“Donnie likes comics?” Michelangelo asked. 

“Pssh yea!” Mikey scoffed, “Yours doesn’t?”

“Not when I read them,” Michelangelo said. “They all think that I’m too childish and I need to grow up. I wish that they would take part in my interests and see that I’m not as dumb as they think I am.”

“That sounds rough,” Mikey said quietly. 

“It is, it sucks.” Michelangelo, “Must be nice to have brothers who don’t treat you like an idiot and constantly hit on you.”

“They hit you?”

“Raph does, when he’s mad or I’ve done something to make him mad,” Michelango shrugged. “It’s what he does.”

Mikey can tell that he’s made his counterpart sad, but he doesn’t think it’s time for Dr. Feelings to come out. So he offered the next best thing, “You want to draw together?”

“Yea!” Michelangelo pulled out some crayons and paper and the two started drawing.

* * *

Leon, was not vibing with this other him so far. He gave a backhanded insult about Raph being a leader, implied that he wasn’t a good leader and a good big brother. He made Raph sad and almost made him cry. 

So, he had every reason not to like his counterpart. Leonardo seemed uptight, pretentious, entitled, really stuck on the whole honorable thing and Leon wondered how he could get anyone to listen to him or how he could even be a good big brother. 

“What’s it like?” Leonardo started, “Having Raph as leader?”

Leon side-eyed him. “Why do you want to know? So you can bad mouth him some more?”

“No! I was just really curious,” Leonardo explained, “It’s just hard to imagine him as leader.”

“Why?”

“Because he has a bad temper and lashes out violently?” Leonardo supplied.

Leon scoffed, laughing with disdain, “That’s not our Raph at _all,”_ he said with emphasis, “He’s soft and cuddly, likes knitting, carrying us around and will cry during rom-coms when the couple finally gets together. Sure, he made a few bad calls and he’s not _perfect_ , but then again, who is? He’s proven himself to be a good big brother and an amazing leader.”

Leonardo was silent. “That doesn’t sound like my Raph at all,” He said, “He’s aggressive, impulsive, and always ready to fight.”

Leon thought back to earlier today when Sunita intervened between the two and he noticed how Michelangelo and Donatello seemed to steel themselves ready for the upcoming fight. It sounded like this was something that happened often enough that it became commonplace in the lair and he tried to imagine him and Raph fighting like that, constant bickering and fighting. He can’t really imagine it and he doesn’t want to. It sounded stressful. It had to be stressful for them both, always fighting, shutting each other down, and being closed off. 

Maybe that’s not who they really were. Leo wasn’t sure, and he would have to see if that was the case. “Maybe you don’t know him very well.”

Leonardo was silent after that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!
> 
> Drop some ideas on where this fic should go next!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls hang out and do their own thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad that people are enjoying this!! *happy stimming* Someone commented that all versions of the turtles have autism and that all Mikeys have ADHD and as an autistic person with ADHD, that's canon now I guess. People also really loved the interaction with the Raphs? I'm so glad because buckle up there will be more coming soon.

After the boys had gone off to do their own thing, April, Apes, Casey, and Sunita were the only ones left in the common area. Casey put on another Jupiter Jim movie as background noise. Sunita and Casey snuggled up, burying themselves in Apes’ sides as the movie played. 

“So you’re me huh?” April said over the movie playing. 

“Yea,” Apes said. “So what’s your story Red?”

“The Kraang kidnapped my dad and me, the turtles rescued me, but the Kraang still have my dad,” April counted off. “We’re trying to figure out what the Kraang are up to and stop them.”

“The Kraang?” Sunita asked, “Who’s that? Yokai mob?”

April raised an eyebrow, pulling her head back in confusion, “The Kraang are alien robots with brains in their stomachs but Yokai?” she said, “I have no idea what that is.”

Sunita pulled off her cloaking brooch, revealing her slime form in all its green, transparent, slimy goodness. “I’m a Yokai!” she exclaimed happily.

The redhead looked Sunita up and down, nodding her head in understanding, “I see,” she said in that voice Sunita used when she herself doesn’t understand things, but April seemed open-minded and willing to understand since she didn’t run away or anything like that. Sunita supposed she couldn’t since she was friends with giant ninja turtles. “Uh is it hard to keep your body like that? It looks difficult.”

“Nah,” Sunita said, “I can explode and reform myself whenever I want! Wanna see?”

April shook her head, “No thanks,” she said with a wave of her hands. “I’ll take your word for it. Maybe I’ll even see it during training or combat at some point.”

Upon hearing the word training, Casey looked up. “What are you training for?” she asked.

“To be a kunoichi. I got tired of standing around while the turtles went in fighting and I wanted to help in my own way,” April explained. “Master Splinter’s teaching me. We started not too long ago so I’m not as skilled as the guys yet. I’m better at stealth and spying so far.”

Impressed, Casey nodded her head. “You know, if I was still with the Foot, I’d be trying to recruit you,” she said. 

“You worked for the  _ Foot?”  _ April asked, mouth agape because holy shit. Slime yokais, a former foot recruit, what else did these people have to offer? “You must be...you must be really good at ninjutsu then to be with the Foot Clan.”

Casey blushed a deep red, rolling her eyes and darting them away from, Apes, April, and Sunita. “I was,” she started. Some of her guilt ebbed away when she felt Apes hold her hand and rubbed circles in it. She squeezed Apes' hand lightly. “I was foolish though. I was  _ really _ gung ho about bringing the Shredder back and letting him rule but that was before I actually saw him for what he was. Lou Jitsu managed to convince me to switch sides at the very and I mean  _ very  _ last minute.”

“How last minute are we talking?” 

“Oh you know, Lou Jitsu being tied up and his energy being sapped away for the Shredder to feed off last minute,” Casey answered nonchalantly, staring at her nails. 

“Holy shit,” April said. “Wait, who’s Lou Jitsu?”

Casey shot up and assumed a fighting stance. “Lou Jitsu is the greatest ninjutsu master and movie star to have ever existed!” She shouted, voice loud and enthusiastic as she went on. “I am honored to be training under him!”

Apes chuckled before dissolving into belly-aching laughter, laughing at her girlfriend’s enthusiasm and hyperactivity, laughing at the craziness they’ve ended up in, and laughing at everything and nothing. “Lou Jistu is Master Splinter,” she clarified. Seeing April do a double-take between her, Casey, and the dojo that Master Splinter was meditating in, she laughed even harder. “Seems impossible right.”

April gave a little laugh herself. “Yea, especially considering how serious Sensei is.”

“Lou’s not really like that,” Apes said with a shake of her head. “He likes to lounge around, watch his old movies, and eat cake and other things.”

“That  _ really _ doesn’t sound like Sensei,” April said, laughing a little harder. “I’m not sure what he would even do if he even sat down in front of a TV.”

“He’d probably tell it to shape up or else it won’t be able to defeat the evil cable box,” Sunita said with a giggle, raising a gooey hand to hide her growing laughter. She sat up, impersonating the rat’s seemingly strict demeanor. “Run through that kata again! That is not the way of a true ninjutsu warrior! The cable box wouldn’t take it easy on you and neither will I!”

April laughed even harder. She found herself having to hold her sides before she doubled over on the floor in laughter. It made her feel good, and she hasn’t felt this lighthearted or joyful since her father’s been kidnapped. She looked over at Casey, who ended up on the floor from laughing too hard and she’s not sure  _ why _ , but that made her laugh even harder. 

“That’s pretty much it,” she said between several fits of laughter, slapping her knee as she tried to get it together again. “Oh my god, I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard since my dad’s been kidnapped.”

“Really?” Casey said, propping her arms up on the floor. “That’s...kinda sad.”

April shrugged, “I’ve been so busy trying to help the turtles get my dad back, I don’t think I’ve put too much thought about it,” she said softly, resting her hands on her knees and clenching her fists together. 

“Well we’re gonna fix that,” Apes said. “And get you to be a damn good kunoichi. Kinda like me.”

“Thanks, Neely,” April said. “You’re a kunoichi too?”

Apes gritted her teeth in a grimace, waving her hands in a so-so motion. “Kinda?” she said, “I’ve been training with the boys for five years now but I also have Gram-Gram Karai’s spirit in me so I have her ninpo energy and I’m crazy good at ninjutsu? The knowledge kinda hasn’t caught up to my body though, so that’s why I’m training too.”

“Can I see it?” April asked. 

“Uhh sure?” Apes said, with a shrug, and a bright, transparent, glowing green version of Apes appeared right next to her, crouching in an attack ready stance. 

“Wow,” April said in awe. “That’s so cool. I wish I had some awesome powers.”

Apes flinched, a pained look flashed across her face. Eyebrows pinched together, lips pressed together tightly and regret shone in Apes’ brown eyes. April knew that look. That’s the look of loss. That’s the look of grief. That’s the look she had when the Kraang took her father. 

“Be careful what you wish for,” Apes said, voice low and quiet, a stark contrast from her liveliness merely seconds ago. 

The redhead felt bad now. She had no idea what her other self went through but it had to have been bad for her to react like this. April rubbed her hands against her sleeves, “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to-”

Apes shook her head, “You didn’t know,” she said, cutting her off. “You couldn’t have known.”

Casey took a step towards Apes, turning her around to face her. She noticed that the corners of her eyes were wet and she pulled her in for a tight hug. “It’s okay Sunshine,” she whispered softly, motioning for Sunita to join in on the hug. “It’s okay. Everyone’s still here.”

Apes was silent for a moment before slowly wrapping her arms around Casey and Sunita. “What would I do without you guys?” she said, her voice tight with emotion. 

“I dunno,” Casey replied, “But let’s not think about it.”

“Can we go around the lair?” Apes asked, “Just to make sure the guys are okay?”

“Of course Sunflower,” Sunita said with a softness to her voice that sounded foreign to April’s ears. April had known them for less than twenty-four hours but it sounded unnatural to hear Sunita be this soft when the sixteen-year-old had grown used to Sunita’s ebullient personality. 

“We can start with Donatello’s lab,” April offered. “It’s up this way.”

April led the three up to the heavy double doors leading to Donatello’s lab. She pulled the doors open, the loud screeching of the doors catching the geniuses’ attention. 

“Hey April!” Donnie and Donatello said in unison. 

Donnie pulled his goggles up and rested them over his head. “Hey there April,” Donnie drawled before he noticed his sister’s wet eyes and the look of grief swirling in them. “You doing okay?”

“Yea Donnie,” she said and Donnie knew that she’s not okay right now but he won’t call her out right now. “Just wanted to see what you were doing. You seem to be adjusting pretty well.”

“In fact, I am helping my counterpart build a tech bo just like yours truly,” he said with a deep bow, gesturing to Donatello welding something together. “It won’t be as impressive as mine but still, impressive.”

“I see,” April said. A small smile graced her face. “It’s good to see you’re having fun there kiddo,” she reached up and lightly patted his cheek. Donnie faked a grimace, smiling as Apes pat his face. 

The four girls exited the lab. April lead them to Mikey’s room and Apes peeked through to see the two orange banded turtles coloring together. Michelangelo and Mikey were too into whatever they were coloring to notice that the older teens had intruded in on them. Casey closed the door behind her, making sure that the soft click of the bolt didn’t disrupt the two younger turtles. 

Up next was Leo. When they found him, he had been sitting on the floor in Leonardo’s room, arms tightly folded against each other with a foul scowl marring his face. He didn’t look like the Leo Apes grew to love and that confused her a bit. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Apes asked. “You usually don’t frown that deeply Neon Leon.”

“Neon Leon?” Leonardo questioned, looking up from one of his comics. 

“According to April, I look like a highlighter. Thus, Neon Leon,” Leo said with a deadpan expression. Leo shook his head. “I think we squashed our beef for now. I’m just tired Apes. It’s been a weird twenty-four hours.”

Looking closely, she could see how his eyes drooped behind the mask, movements lethargic, and sleepy. Holding out a hand, she helped Leo stand up. “Why don’t we go to bed?”

Leo shrugged, giving a sleepy nod. “Sure.”

“Let’s go check on Raph real quick,” she said. “Then we can sleep.”

Leo leaned against April, forehead resting against the nape of her neck as they walked to Raphael's room. She heard a lot of noise coming from behind the door and hoped that the two weren’t arguing. Apes slowly opened the door, only to see the two red masked turtles sitting on the floor, peacefully chatting while Raph held a smaller turtle and knitted something around it. 

“I see you two are getting along quite nicely,” Casey said with a smile. “Who’s the turtle?”

“That’s Spike,” Raphael said, reaching out to stroke the top of the turtle’s head. “He’s one of my best friends, had him since I was a kid.”

“That’s nice!” Sunita said happily, “He seems really friendly. Can I hang out with him sometime?” 

“Spike, take a bite of your lettuce if you want Sunita to hang out with you,” Raph ordered, smiling when the small turtle did. “I think he’s warming up to us.”

Raphael smirked and rolled his eyes. “He’s probably only like that because there are so many new folks to fawn over him,” he guessed, twirling his sais. “Once he gets used to you all, he’ll go back to normal.”

Turning his attention towards Sunita, “Maybe he’ll let you play with him tomorrow after training?”

“Alrighty,” she chirped. “Can’t wait!”

Casey peered her head further into the room and noticed the drum set a few feet away from his bed, “You play the drums?” she said, a hint of awe and reverence seeping into her voice. 

“Sometimes,” Raphael said. “It gets kinda hard to practice when you’re training for four hours every day.”

Casey totally understood that, seeing that she never really got a chance to develop many hobbies outside of hockey since she spent most of her time working for the Foot. “I feel ya on that.”

Leon yawned loudly, catching Apes attention. “Oh we’re going to bed Raph,” she said. “It might be time for you to join us. Maybe you should get Mikey and Donnie.”

Raph nodded, carefully handing over Spike in his completed sweater back to Raphael. “Same thing tomorrow?”

“Same thing tomorrow,” Raphael confirmed, taking Spike and sitting him on his pillow where Spike stomps his feet before resting. Raph stood up, stepping out of Raphael’s room and wishing him a good night. 

Apes and Casey took Leon to the dojo while Raph, Sunita, and April went off to go get Mikey and Donnie. Soon, all of the kids were in the dojo, Donnie helped set up the mats and blankets, shooing Leon away as he tried to bury himself in them. After constantly shooing Leon away, the mats were finally set up, everyone huddled up how they did the night before and soon fell asleep. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Master Splinter's fear of the Shredder consumes him and the children bear the consequences of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay a few things:
> 
> 1\. Shoutout to BrightLotusMoon for saying that all the teetles are autistic plus all Mikeys being ADHD. I forgot to credit them properly last time! My bad!
> 
> 2\. Someone commented that it didn't feel right to have Rise April being nicknamed Apes, since she's the only black character within the fic. As a black writer, I was hesitant about using it, even if it was her canonical nickname that was used by Leo within the show. So from here on out, she's gonna be referred to as Neely and any other possible variations. (Shoutout to Kiwi for giving me that nickname.)
> 
> 3\. We're heading into 2012 episode territory, starting with Panic in the Sewers. I'm going to try and keep some story beats the same whenever I write about canon episodes, making sure it has a nice and satisfactory narrative with the Rise kids, and making sure that the story feels balanced. Panic in the Sewers is a 'prototype' of trying to do that.
> 
> 4\. I'll say this now, I hate writing fight scenes. I hope that this sparring scene is satisfying. I had wanted to write more with the other turtles but doing that would have been a major slog and probably would have made the chapter not as enjoyable to read. I also really just wanted to write Neely getting an upper hand on Leonardo.
> 
> 5\. I'll respond to all of the lovely comments at some point! I'm just so glad that people really like this fic so far!!

_ There was a deep mist that surrounded Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as they snuck around the streets of New York before eventually falling in line as they went down an alley. The four turtles crouched down, hiding behind a dumpster.  _

_ “Shredder could be anywhere,” Leonardo warned his brothers. Turning away, he held a finger to his lips to signal that they needed to be silent. “Stay frosty guys.” _

_ Donatello piped up, “FYI: Frost can’t accumulate unless it’s below freezing, except during a process called-” _

_ The purple banded turtle droned on. Raphael and Michelangelo behind him. Raphael rolled his eyes as Michelangelo leaned in and whispered, “Maybe he’s got an off-switch somewhere.” _

_ Raphael looked at Michelangelo before his eyes gleamed and smacked Donnie upside the head, “Found it!” He said with a smirk as Donatello winced in pain.  _

_ Leonardo was just about to get on his brothers when they all froze hearing a familiar voice,  _

**_“And I’ve found four pathetic turtles with only seconds to live.”_ **

_ The four teens looked up around the alley, trying to see where the Shredder was as they drew their weapons. Michelangelo joked that he didn’t want to be those turtles to which Rapheal responded that they were those turtles. They all stood relatively close to each other, on guard and ready to attack.  _

_ Michelangelo took several steps back towards the outskirts of the alley and bumped into the Shredder, who grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down deep into the mist. The youngest yelled, dropping one of his nunchucks, rolling towards the elder three.  _

_ “Mikey?” Donatello called out, stepping in the direction Michelangelo vanished from. The Shredder reappeared and Donatello jumped forward, bo staff out in front of him ready to strike only for Shredder to thrust his arm out, catching his bo staff between the blades of his gauntlet and broke it. He dashed forwards, kicking Donatello in his shell, ignoring how Donatello’s body crumpled against the wall.  _

_ “Raph take him down!” Leonardo ordered.  _

_ Raphael and Leonardo ran forward. Raphael ran across the walls, gaining momentum as Leonardo fought off Shredder, jumping off and diving down, ready to plunge his sais deep into the Shredder when he was caught mid-attack and repeatedly punched in the stomach before a harsh, swift kick sent him flying across the alley and into the dark and murky mist.  _

_ “No!” Leonardo screamed, running after his younger brother. The sky turned red and Shredder’s deep, mocking laughter echoed around him. He looked up, desperately trying to locate the Shredder. Metal clinked against the hard concrete. When it stopped, Leonardo turned around and gasped, instinctually throwing his hands up over his face, receiving the violent swing of Shredder’s blade that sent him flying and into the wall of the alley.  _

_ He got up on his knees, trying to crawl away as Shredder walked towards him, the blades on his gauntly scraping against the wall, miniature sparks flying off.  _

**_“There is no place you can run, no place you can hide, where I will not find you! You think you are ready to face me?”_ ** _ Shredder said, pulling his blade up and ready to strike down.  _

“NO!”

Master Splinter sat up as he woke up with a yell. His chest heaved as he took quick and shallow breaths that eventually evened out into his normal breathing. 

_ ‘It was just a dream,’  _ he told himself as he stood up. The rat walked into the dojo where he saw the other versions of his sons and their friends peacefully sleeping. He circled around the pile of teenagers buried under blankets before going out into the common area and into the hallways where his sons’ rooms were. Splinter opened the door to each one of his sons’ rooms, the worry and fear in his heart simmering down as he checked on the boys. 

Once he confirmed himself that all the children within the lair were alive, he went back into his room and attempted to go to sleep. After much tossing and turning, many false attempts to fall back asleep, he decided to meditate for the rest of the night.

* * *

The next morning, everyone except Master Splinter woke up to the smell of Mike’s cooking and gathered around the kitchen table to eat breakfast. 

“Where’d you learn to cook like this Mikey?” Leonardo asked, scarfing down some scrambled eggs. “This is delicious and maybe even better than pizza!”

“Nothing could be better than pizza,” Michelangelo growled playfully, stabbing the eggs and shoved them in his mouth. He started chewing, closing his eyes with a nod, “Though these eggs may come close to that.”

“I’ve watched a lot of cooking shows growing up,” Mikey stated proudly, puffing his chest out. “Got to meet one of my idols too! Rupert Swaggart, what a chef.” He got a faraway, dreamy look in his eyes. 

“And he didn’t mind that you were a five-foot-tall mutant turtle?” Donatello asked, sarcasm coating his voice. “I’m sure that went well.”

“Actually, he got turned into a murderous mutant pig who’s craving fileting some turtles,” Leo answered in a bored voice. “So, I’d say that he didn’t really mind that fact at all.”

“He tried to eat you?” Raphael said. “Wow, that’s pretty messed up.”

“Meat Sweats tried to eat me,” Donnie replied. “But my bros managed to save me before he could do so.”

“I think Xever threatened to deshell us once or twice,” Michelangelo said. “But I don’t think anyone’s tried turning us into turtle soup.”

Sunita looked at the turtles, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What the hell?” she said, “That’s-what the hell.”

“Same thing I’m thinking girl,” said Neely, chomping on a piece of bacon.

Raph gave Spike a few pats on the head, sectioning off some of his scrambled eggs to try. “Can Spike eat scrambled eggs?”

“Tortoises can eat scrambled eggs every so often,” Donnie answered, “Just make sure that it doesn’t become a part of his diet.”

“I thought he was a turtle?” Raphael said. 

“Eh, common mistake,” Donnie said with a shrug. “I might be able to figure out what kind he is upon closer inspection.”

Raph fed Spike some of his eggs, smiling happily as the tortoise ate some. Everyone finished eating their food soon and piled their dishes in the sink. 

“What should we do today?” Neely asked. She had wanted to explore more of New York and get to spend more time with these other turtles. They seemed a bit intense, a bit stuck on the whole honor thing but she was certain that they were just as soft as her brothers if she got to know them a little better. 

“Shouldn’t we be trying to find a way home?” Casey interjected, waving her fork around. “Shouldn’t Donnie be yelling about how the longer we stay here, the more unstable something becomes and some sciencey mumbo jumbo?”

Donnie shrugged. “I could,” he said. “But I don’t have materials to start building anything to take us home.”

“Knowing the Kraang they probably have something,” Donatello said. “But it would be difficult to do a recon mission regarding the Kraang with so many of us. I don’t think anything I’ve built would fit all of us.”

“Donatello's right,” Leonardo said. “I think we should lay low, stick to our evening patrols and-”

“You guys do patrols?” Raph asked, lips curving into an excited grin. “That’s awesome!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone get excited for patrols,” Michelangelo said in a conspiratorial whisper to Donatello, who nodded slowly in response as he drank some juice “Y’all don’t do patrols?”

“ _ They _ don’t,” Raph muttered in irritation, jerking his thumb at his younger brothers. “I’ve been trying for forever to get them to do patrols.”

“Why do you like patrols so much?” Leonardo asked.

Raph gave him a look that said ‘What other reason could there be?’ “To keep people safe from harm?” he said slowly. “Isn’t that a good enough reason to like them?”

“Oh,” Leonardo said dumbly, “Raphael likes them because he gets to beat up people.”

“Damn right I do,” Raphael agreed. “Ain’t that right Spike?”

Spike took another bite of his lettuce. Raphael pumped his fist in the air causing Mikey to laugh, amused by how close the shorter turtle and his tortoise were, and Raph to rear his sais ready to attack. 

“Woah, dude. Put away the pizza forks,” Mikey joked, waving his hands in surrender. “I’ll bring out Dr. Feelings and we can talk about how we’re feeling right now”

“I don’t need you mocking me about Spike like everyone else does,” Raphael growled, preparing to lunge at Mikey, squawking when Raph picked him off of the ground. 

“Mikey didn’t mean like that Raphael,” Raph said, and hearing the bigger turtle’s voice, calmed Raphael down a bit. “He just thought it was cute how you and Spike have something real special together.”

Raphael looked at Mikey who flashed an innocent grin and nodded his head. He hung his head, a bit ashamed that he made himself look foolish in front of everyone and a bit guilty that he was about to attack someone for no reason  _ again. _ “Sorry about that Mikey,” He said in a low voice. “You can put me down now Raphie. I won’t attack your brother.”

Raph mhmm’ed, putting Rapheal down back on his feet. He put his dishes in the sink, picked up Spike, and walked away to his room while Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello looked on in shock.

“What happened?” 

“Raphael apologized, didn’t attack anyone, and calmed down?” Donatello answered, “A rarity that we never thought would happen.”

“I’m going to say that’s something new?” Neely said. The three turtles nodded. “All I gotta say is that you better get used to it with Raph and Dr. Feelings in the lair.” 

“Dr. Feelings?” Michelangelo asked.

Neely chuckled, “I’ll let you meet Dr. Feelings when the time is right.” She didn’t mention anything about Dr. Delicate Touch, inwardly cackling at the chaotic energy that Mikey’s alter ego possessed. 

“I don’t think I’m in the mood to go out right now, so I’m probably going to lounge around and watch YouTube videos. You guys are welcome to join me,” April announced, walking out of the kitchen and into the common area. She plugged her phone up as soon as she sat down, surrounded by the turtles, Casey, and Sunita. Raphael came out after some convincing from Raph and everyone watched videos on Neely’s phone for the rest of the day. 

* * *

After a long day of watching YouTube videos, the time for the evening patrol came around. All the teens were prepared to go out. The turtles had their weapons, April had her mystic bat, Casey had her makeshift hockey stick/spear, and Sunita with her cloaking brooch. 

They were just about to hop over the turnstiles when Splinter stopped them. 

“Where do you think you all are going?” Master Splinter called out, stopping the teens in their tracks.

“Heading out for our evening patrol,” Leonardo answered, stopping midway through tucking his katanas in their scabbards. “We’re bringing the other guys as well, get them accustomed to how we do them.”

Master Splinter shook his head, “There will be no patrol!” said the ninja master.

Leonardo tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean Sensei?” he asked, “We have to keep an eye on the Kraang and-”

“The last time you fought the Shredder, you all barely escaped with your lives.”

Nodding in agreement, Leonardo said, “Next time, we’ll be ready.” He believed in his brothers, the other versions of himself and his brothers, Neely, Casey, and Sunita. He believed that they would be able to take on the Shredder whenever they would cross paths again. 

“Yes, because you will stay down here until you are ready. No patrol, no games, no rest. There is only training! Starting now!” Master Splinter ordered, pointing everyone into the dojo. Everyone trekked into the dojo and when Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo sat down on their knees, the others followed suit. 

Leonardo wanted to question his father as he went into the dojo and sat down but he could hear how determined, how  _ furious _ he sounded, how insistent he was about the training to the point he felt afraid of trying to argue with Splinter. Was he mad at them for not being strong enough to fight the Shredder? Was this training punishment for almost dying? Was he disappointed in Leonardo’s leadership skills? Why did Sensei sound so mad? Why  _ was  _ he so mad?

The young turtle tried his best to make sense of Splinter’s actions when he heard someone, he wasn’t sure if it was his brothers or not, made a wisecrack and he immediately shushed them. “Sensei’s already mad. Don’t make him any madder!” he whispered frantically, trying to make sure everyone was quiet before Sensei stepped in. 

Master Splinter walked into the dojo, standing stall, strides even and swift as he walked in. He stopped in front of the teens, turning around to face them. 

“Since we have newcomers to our training session, I’ll be testing their skill set,” Splinter said thoughtfully, stroking his thin and wiry beard. “Leonardo, Neely, you two are up.”

Leonardo hesitantly got up and stood in the center of the dojo, facing Neely. He drew out his katana, assuming a fighting stance while Neely brought out her glowing green baseball bat and crouched down slightly as any baseball player would. 

“Don’t you think it’s a little unwise to bring a baseball bat to a ninja fight?” Leonardo teased, circling Neely. “I’ll take it easy on you though.”

Smirking, Neely reared her baseball bat behind her head as if she was preparing to swing, “Okay then, go ahead Baby Blue,” she said as she circled Leonardo. 

_ “Hajime!”  _ Splinter yelled. 

The two teens continued circling each other, weapons drawn, surveying the other for any weak points to attack at. Leonardo lunged forward, swinging his katana to slice at Neely’s baseball bat. Neely blocked his attack, pushing him away and as he stumbled back, she chucked her baseball bat at his plastron, causing him to double over. 

“Ninjas never throw their weapons,” Leonardo objected, standing back up. 

Neely pushed her glasses up on her face as her bat flew back into her hands. “This is April O’Neil you’re fighting with and she got her own style of fighting, Baby Blue,” she taunted, going into a backflip when Leonardo swiped at her, with her back against the bonsai tree. 

Leonardo tried to keep her cornered against the trunk of the tree but she dived towards the floor into a roll and ended up behind the turtle. Neely was about to sweep Leonardo’s legs from under him but the turtle quickly turned around and she pushed herself up with a jump. Turning around, Leonardo ran at Neely, swinging his katanas at the older girl several times, who expertly dodged each and every one of his attacks with a mix of backflips and well time jumps. 

“Am I wearing you down?” Neely asked with a smirk as the two ended up circling each other again. 

Leonardo frowned, stepping forward to swing at Neely. His attack was once again blocked by the teenager and he found himself stepping back as Neely stepped forward, pushing down on his katanas. She quickly jerked to the side, knocking a katana out of his hands. 

His other hand tightly gripped the hilt of his katana and he took a deep breath to steady himself. Neely stepped back, ducking when Leonardo swung at her, her ninpo summoning a construct of herself pushing against the ground to propel her back up. She shifted into a giant sweeping kick, knocking Leonardo off of his feet.

Leonardo’s katana fell out of his hand when he fell. Neely rolled past the stunned turtle, picking up his sword and sliding it away from him. 

“Impressive,” Leonardo complimented as he got up, putting his fists in front of him. He threw a punch at Neely, kneeing her in the stomach as she dodged it. She groaned in pain but quickly recovered. He then shifted his body towards Neely as he extended his leg in a high roundhouse kick. Leonardo’s kick nearly made contact with the back of her head, however, she stepped back, throwing her baseball bat at his plastron and did another sweeping kick under his leg, knocking him to the ground. 

_ “Yame!”  _ Splinter called out. He helped Leonardo up off the ground and turned to April. “Impressive Neely. Good job wearing your opponent down, disarming your opponent, and tricking them into underestimating you.” 

“Leonardo, my son,” he started, “It was unwise of you to underestimate your opponent simply because of what they wield. If you were with the Shredder now and you made that mistake, you would not be standing here with me.”

Leonardo hung his head, feeling slightly ashamed that he had made such a mistake. He went to sit next to Raphael, who was called to spar with Casey. He couldn’t pay attention to the two teens intensely sparring, too focused on his doubts and musings to do so and stared at the floor while he thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After weeks of constant training, the children try to destress. Too bad Shredder's still trying to destroy them and their home is at stake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally responded to all the comments! I'll try to respond to future comments in a timely manner!
> 
> I had written this right when I posted the last chapter and meant to post this last week but school got in the way(I have way too many papers to write), and I got trapped in planning another crossover with a friend. Whoops. Hopefully, I'll finish writing chapter nine before I post the next chapter!
> 
> I also have ideas for some other Rise fics. Hopefully, I can take some time in the future to write these ideas because I love Rise so much, and making content for it is so satisfying.
> 
> Also! I found a Rise/2003 fic titled Transdimensional Trouble by fireworksinthenight! Please go read and support their fic! Give them love!

When Master Splinter had said there would be no patrols, no games and no rest, everyone was quick to realize that he had meant it. The teens ended up practicing through the entire night, bodies sore from the very intense training session that Master Splinter had put them through. Running through multiple katas, intermittent and randomized randori, and group sparring sessions, they all wanted to sleep and rest but found out that they could not but Master Splinter wouldn’t let them. With his rising fear of the Shredder right here in New York City, looming within the shadows, and possibly attacking at any moment, haunted the rat and in turn, took out his fear and anxiety on the exhausted teens. The children’s bodies became sorer, more exhausted as two and a half weeks of intense grueling training with very little sleep wore down on them and their temperaments. 

Michelangelo, after sloppily finishing a kata, turned to his father, “More Sensei?” he asked, his baby blue eyes drooping sleepily behind his mask. 

“Yes, more!” He bellowed over the children’s exhausted groans as they slowly ran through a kata. “There is no intention in your strikes! Do it again! We will practice all night if we have to!”

“We have been practicing all night,” Donnie snapped, twirling his bo staff. “And every night before that, what’s the difference at this point?”

Michelangelo collapsed onto the floor, burying his face in his arms, and the soft sounds of snoring reached Splinter’s ears. “Somebody wake him up,” he ordered, ears twitching in irritation. Raphael twirled his sais gleefully, a devilish smirk coming about on his face. 

“I’ll do it.”

Sunita pressed her hand against his plastron, “Maybe I should do it,” she said, aware that if Raphael woke him that training could get even worse. She knelt down on the floor next to Michelangelo and started shaking him. “Wake up.”

Michelangelo woke up with a flinch, curling in on himself, “The Shredder’s here!” he screamed, the nightmare still present in his mind. He couldn’t get the sight of Leonardo’s blood staining the Shredder’s gauntlet, Raphael and Donatello’s broken bodies out of his mind, and the striking image of the man bringing his weapon down on Splinter before finally coming after the youngest turtle out of his mind. 

“You were having a nightmare,” Sunita said, gently stroking his head. It seemed to calm him down a bit and she kept on. 

“Sensei, can we take a break? For just a quick second?” Casey asked, hunching over her naginata. 

Splinter shook his head, “The Shredder will not rest until you’re all dead!” 

Raph, the usually mild-mannered and soft-spoken snapping turtle, had finally snapped. “Look Pops, we’ve been trainin’ for nearly three weeks with almost no sleep. We need a break,” he said, motioning to everyone sluggishly standing around on their weapons to prop themselves up so that they wouldn’t fall flat on their faces. 

“If I were the Shredder, none of you would be breathing right now. However, a brief rest might do some good,” Splinter said, unofficially ending the training. He turned their back on them and headed into his room. 

The teens had dragged themselves out of the dojo and into the common area, separating so that they could each deal with stress in their own ways. 

Normally, Casey would spar and fight someone to get rid of the stress that was building up but she knew that if she tried to, her body would completely give out from underneath her. At the moment, she was cuddled up with Neely while holding her tired, exhausted pile of slime that was her girlfriend in her arms. The hyperactive teen was very glad that Sunita was practically weightless right now because she knew that if she tried to hold the slime yokai in her human disguise they would both fall on their faces. They were watching epic fail compilations on YouTube, pillows, and blankets surrounding the three. Donnie laid next to Neely, peacefully sleeping, with Shelldon charging next to him 

Casey snuggled into her girlfriend, enjoying the fact that she was spending time with the girls she loved, even if it was after extended and grueling training. She would have used this brief rest to try and rest but Splinter’s constant talking of the Shredder and being merciless towards them in his attacks only brought back memories of her at the Crying Titan, aiding the Shredder in his cruelty and having to fight back against that cruelty to save the world. She dreamt of scenarios where she didn’t betray Shredder at the last minute and his frigid, soulless, metal claws rested upon hers in victory, where he succeeded in draining Lou Jitsu of his ninpo and became indestructible, where they failed and broken, bloodied, mangled bodies of everyone that she had grown to love were strewn across the Crying Titan. But Casey found comfort in the fact that this was a Shredder that she was familiar with, a Shredder that was defeated. However, the Shredder in this dimension that these turtles were facing was new and unfamiliar to her, striking fear in her heart. 

What if Neely had missed when she swung at Shredder’s head? What if he had attacked her before her brothers could step in behind her? What if one of them ended up like Leonardo, trapped between the claws of his gauntlet with a blade edging dangerously close to their faces? There were too many what-ifs and too many scenarios about this dimension that could possibly end with their deaths that put Casey very on edge and unable to sleep at this moment. 

Her eyelids grew heavy and she forced herself to stay awake, to pay attention to the video playing on Neely’s laptop when she heard Leonardo and Raphael bickering with each other. 

“Why’d you do that?” Leonardo whined. Casey could understand why Neely called him Baby Blue. 

Raphael narrowed his eyes and smirked, “Spike said Space Heroes is too stupid for him.”

“Oh really, that’s saying something, considering he’s with you all day.”

Upset, Raphael placed Spike down on a pillow. “You made him angry, now you’re going to pay.”

Raph didn’t bother looking up from his knitting as he grabbed Raphael's arm and pulled the shorter turtled back down next to him. “Enough you two,” he muttered, resuming his knitting once more. “Calm down.”

A distant shout of “I can help with that!” was quickly followed by a water balloon flying out of a portal and hitting Raphael smack dab in the face. 

“Michelangelo!” “Leon!”

The two turtles appeared from where they were hiding, sporting mischievous and chaotic grins. “It wasn’t us,” they said in unison. 

“You should see your face,” Leon said with a giggle. Leaning towards Michelangelo, “Your brother looks so mad right now.”

“What about yours?” Michelangelo whispered, “He looks like he’s about to blow.”

Raph glared at them, “I can’t deal with you two right now,” he said. 

Leon bent down to Raph’s level and wrapped an arm around his neck, “Don’t harsh our mellow, big bro. We’re just trying to cope with this stress the best way we know how,” he said with an impish smile, “Mike, prepare another water balloon, my dear twin needs to cool off.”

“Do it and neither one of your bodies will be found,” Donnie threatened. Michelangelo tucked away his already filled water balloon behind him and told Leonardo that he would be next.

* * *

Donatello had shown them the patrol buggy he had been working on and when someone had called it a go-kart, he got extra defensive. Leon personally thought that they were go-karts and fun to take up topside for a few races. Real-life Mario Karting was the first thing that came to mind and that made him the idea of racing them even better. Leon found his fantasizing about kart racing interrupted when they all somehow found themselves back in the dojo thanks to Leonardo. Leon’s muscles instinctively ached when he took a step in the training arena, and he hoped that the younger wasn’t trying to get them to do more training. The break wasn’t even over yet!

Leonardo’s arms were close to his sides as he tried to get his younger brothers to run through a kata. Like everyone in the dojo, the younger three looked at their eldest brother in slight irritation. 

“Hoko no kamae. Raphael, hoko no kamae!” Leonardo said. Raphael looked on in annoyance. 

Shaking his head, “Hoko no way! We already have Splinter driving us into the ground, we can’t handle it from the inside!” Raphael said. 

Leon raised an eyebrow, taking note of how Leonardo’s voice rose, reedy with a twinge of fear coating the child’s voice. He snuck a glance at Raph and commenced a mind-meld with him. 

_“Is it just me, or is mini-me beginning to crack?”_

Leon felt someone pushing at the edge of his mind, recognizing that push as Raph. _“It’s not just you. All this talk about Shredder is making everyone crack just a bit.”_

_“It has to be worse for Leonardo since he’s their leader,”_ Leon noted. _“He’s gotta be taking all that pressure personally.”_

Even though Raph doesn’t physically nod his head in agreement, Leon knew that the elder agreed with him. _“I know. It sucks. I’ll try to talk to him after this session.”_

Taking a look at his other self, seeing the child become more and more anxious as he tried to get his brother to get into the stance, failing with each attempt, Leon doubted that Leonardo would make it through this pseudo training session. _“I don’t think he’ll last that long. I really think you should talk to him now.”_

Raph nodded, stepping forward to reach out towards Leonardo. “Hey-”

April rushed into the dojo, bending over, her hands resting on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. “I got something, it’s about the Shredder.”

Everyone turned, staring down at her with wide eyes. 

“What is it? Spit it out!” Casey snapped. 

“I was doing a little spying to help out,” April explained. Seeing several glares aimed at her, she held her hands up in surrender. “I didn’t want to stick around while this Shredder guy was out and about! I wanted to help in whatever way I could.”

“April, what if they caught on to whatever you were doing?” Leonardo lectured, “You could have gotten hurt!”

Neely shushed him, “Cut her some slack, Baby Blue. Let’s hear her out.”

April continued. “Anyways, I snuck a pizza to the Purple Dragons and attached a recorder to the box,” She beamed when Donnie gave her a high five, calling her plan ‘simple, yet brilliant.’ Pulling out her T-phone, April played a recording and everyone quieted down when they heard voices crackle and speak in the recorder. 

_“We're meeting Shredder tonight. He's got a plan to destroy the turtles,”_ a Purple Dragon member said. 

_“How? He doesn't even know where they are,” Another member asked, they heard the telltale sounds of smacking on pizza and they all cringed at how gross it sounded._

_“He says they're in the sewers somewhere, and that's all he needs to know to wipe them out.”_

April stopped the recording and looked at the gang, eyes going wide when Master Splinter snuck up behind them. 

“It appears that our home is no longer safe,” Splinter mused, stroking his cheek. “Shredder has to be stopped.” 

“We don’t even know his plan!” Mikey said out loud. “How are we supposed to stop it if we don’t know it _and_ we can’t go topside?”

“We’ll have to go topside. It’s our only choice,” Raphael stated. 

Sunita nodded gravely, “We don’t really have any other choice.”

* * *

The eight turtles had ran into Dogpound for the first time since his mutation. Even with Raph’s extra muscles and Donnie’s tech, Dogpound still proved to be too much for them and had barely managed to escape. 

They had retreated to the sewers, feeling the humiliating defeat hang over their shoulders. 

“This blows,” Raphael complained. 

“Dogpound was way too powerful for us,” Michelangelo said sadly. The others gave him a confused look and he went on, “Ya know? ‘Cuz he’s a dog and he-”

Donnie stopped him, “We understand your effective naming process.”

“We’re no closer to that meeting,” Leonardo said. 

Donatello shrugged, “Maybe we can go to Florida? I’ve been doing some research on the way back and the sewers are really nice this time of year.”

Leon shook his head, “No can do, Donnie’s terrified of beach balls. Who knows how many would end up in the sewers,” he said. 

Standing up, Neely shook her head, “I’m not gonna let you all give up our home so easily, we can get into that meeting.”

“I’ll do it," April said. 

The turtles vetoed and argued against her plan vehemently. It was too dangerous, she could be caught, they said. 

“I’ve been training to be a kunoichi anyways. This will be a good way to practice,” April argued. 

“You’ve only been training for a few weeks,” Splinter said, worry seeping into his voice. 

“She’s not doing it by herself,” Casey said. “We’re going to help her with it too.”

Sunita folded her arms and looked up at Master Splinter, “Shredder’s gonna try and attack our home. We can get you the information needed to stop it. Like it or not, we’re the only choice you guys have.”

Master Splinter knew that she was right but that didn’t mean he still agreed with this plan. He was already thinking of the ways this plan could go wrong and the terrible things that could happen to all of his children. The Shredder could find them out, end them right there in his lair, and he could be none the wiser. April could be caught by the Foot. This Dogpound, as Michelangelo called him, could sniff them out and hand them over to Shredder. His fear was palpable, rational since he knew from personal experience what the man was like. 

He looked down at Sunita, who gave him a look of hope, her brown eyes swirling and hardening the same way Michelangelo does when he’s determined. 

The ninja master gave a reluctant sigh, “Fine, but get out of there if it becomes too dangerous.”

Splinter hoped and prayed that his children would come home unscathed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!!! <3!!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls try to see what the Shredder is planning. Hamato luck kicks in, per the usual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a bit more action-heavy! But still, I hope you all like it! :>
> 
> Also, the guys on the Sewers discord has caused me to have so many fic ideas, y'all no idea. 
> 
> I have a Twitter!! Catch me there and talk to me sometimes @cosmonautstitch.

“I don’t like this,” Donatello muttered anxiously, watching intensely as April and Neely walked down the street in front of the church where the Shredder was. April whispered something to Neely, who ducked and hid around the corner of the church. “I don’t like this.”

  


“Have a little faith,” Casey said, staring down at the red-headed teen from above. “She won’t grow as a ninja if you never have any faith in her.”

  


“She’s right,” Leonardo said in agreement. He held his phone up waiting for April to say something, anything. “We have to have faith in April and Neely.”

  


“They’re giving free pizza to the enemy,” Michelangelo pouted, folding his arms in contempt at the plan. “It’s just in bad taste.”

  


The eight turtles, Sunita and Casey watched as April walked up to the door, hood covering her face, and knocked on the door. The heavy door opened, a Foot ninja’s face peering through the small crack. 

  


_ “I’m here to deliver a totally delicious pizza,”  _ April’s voice crackled through Leonardo’s T-Phone, faking a deep voice to disguise herself. 

  


The door slammed in her face, and she stepped away, running into the alley to meet up with Neely. Both girls whispered something that was indecipherable to the others, who watched on in curiosity as April threw the pizza into the dumpster. 

  


“That could have been our victory pizza!” Michelangelo whined, “What are they doing? They’ve gone rogue!”

  


“We can order a victory pizza,” Donnie said, narrowing his eyes as he observed the two girls dashed across the street, hopping over a set of stairs and prepared to knock on the door. “They’re pulling a classic Neely. Turtles, Casey, Sunita, be ready to attack.”

  


“A Neely?’ Raphael asked. “Sounds like you’re ready for disaster to happen.”

  


“If you knew Neely as well as we do, disaster always happens,” Mikey said. “It’s usually our fault though.”

  


“April, Neely pull back,” Leonardo ordered. “We’ll get closer to Shredder some other way.”

  


There was a bit of static before Neely spoke,  _ “No way Baby Blue. We’re getting in on that meeting.”  _ Leonardo heard her knock on the door.

  


_ “Sir, I'm with the firefighters association, local 94. We've received reports of some faulty wiring in this building, so mind if I have a look-see?”  _ April said. 

  


_ “I’m not quite sure,” _ the man said, starting to close the door on the two. 

  


_ “Look man,”  _ Neely said. Leonardo guessed that she stopped the man from closing the door on them.  _ “You wanna wake up to your home burning down?...No? Then let us have a look-see like my fellow firefighter suggested.” _

  


Leonardo hummed, impressed by Neely’s persuasion skills. “Well this seemed to be a success this time around,” he said, watching the two girls run up the fire escape and made it to the top of the building. 

  


_ “Girl...you can make this jump...don’t think, just do,”  _ Neely said in an encouraging voice, and he looked on in awe as April broke into a run and successfully made the jump onto the walkway of Shredder’s lair. 

  


“She’s so cool,” Donatello said in awe. 

  


April trekked the walkway, made it to the window, and crawled into the broken part of the window. 

  


_ “I’m in,”  _ she said. 

  


“I knew she could do it,” Leon said. 

  


The deep, baritone voice of the Shredder came through Leonardo’s T-phone, “ _ Listen carefully. The five of you will hijack a tanker truck on Houston in approximately 15 minutes. The chemical is extremely rare, so you will not have another chance.” _

  


“Chemical? What chemical?” said Raphael. 

  


Donatello glared at the green-eyed turtle, “How about we listen and find out?” 

  


“How about I break your shell on my knee?”

  


Mikey placed a hand over the two turtles mouths, “Will you two be quiet?” Donatello and Raphael quieted down, still glaring at each other. 

  


_ “What’s the chemical?” _

  


_ “Chlorosulfonic acid, it has a volatile reaction with water. If it gets poured into the sewers, it will incinerate their lair within, including Splinter. Those disgusting turtles will be destroyed once and all.” _

  


“April you did good, now get out,” Leonardo ordered. 

  


April crawled back out of the window just as Dogpound and several Foot members made their way out of the building. The redhead made her way down from behind the building and met back up with Neely, both girls peeking their way around the building and watching Dogpound, four ninjas, and Purple Dragon members hijack a car. 

  


“ _ Okay, we’re gonna hitch a ride,”  _ Neely said. April noticed the mutant dog’s ears twitched and started pulling the other girl away from the corner. 

  


Donnie snatched Leonardo’s T-phone away from him, “Guys, get out of there. Dogpound heard you!” The softshell turtle jumped down from the rooftop, powering up his battle shell, pressing a few buttons on his tech-bo, which transformed one end of the staff into a giant hammer. He threw it at Dogpound, smirking when the mutant stumbled back several seconds when it hit him. “Stay away from them!”

  


“Thank goodness you came,” April said gratefully, pulling out her tessen while Neely swung her bat, tossing Donnie’s tech-bo back at him. The two began fighting off a Foot ninja and Purple Dragon members and edging away from Dogpound as he advanced towards the two. Everyone else jumped down from the fire escape and began fighting off the ones closest to the van and the Foot soldiers that joined in from in front of the building. 

  


“I recognize you,” Dogpound growled at Neely, swiping at the girls. Donnie smacked his hand away, jumping back when the other punched at the ground. “You’re the one who hit Master Shredder with that bat of yours. It would make his day if not only I destroyed the turtles but also brought in the girl who dared to strike at him.”

  


“I’ll do it again if I have the chance!” Neely yelled back, “I’m not afraid of that ugly soulless husk of a man, unlike you.” She swept her legs under the Foot ninja that dashed towards April, catching them off guard and allowing April to deliver a swift but harsh kick to the ninja’s side, effectively knocking them out. 

  


With a vicious snarl, Dogpound lunged at Neely. He brought both of his arms behind his head before bringing them down over April, Neely, and Donnie. Donnie grabbed April and dodged his attack while Neely ducked between his legs, ending up behind Dogpound. She chucked her bat at the back of his head, a hand curling around the handle of her bat. 

  


“Neely, may I advise you that it is unwise to taunt a violent mutant that is trying to kill us at the moment?” Donnie said, tossing a smoke bomb at Dogpound’s face and with his tech-bo in hammer mode, swung at Dogpound’s short legs, knocking him from underneath. “It’s making my job a lot harder at the moment. April, get to Sunita!”

  


“Are you sure?” April shouted as she swiped at another Foot soldier. 

  


Taking his eyes away from the angered mutant, Donnie saw that April was struggling a bit with the soldier she was currently fighting. He yelled at April to duck before tossing several explosive throwing stars at the ninja and grabbing April. He hovered above ground for a second, then set her on the fire escape, “Stay here for the moment,” he said. 

  


He didn’t hear her protests as he hovered back down. 

  


Dogpound was pulling his fists out of the asphalt road and had managed to do so. “Where is that turtle?” He asked, sniffing the air, and turned around when he felt something hit the back of his head again. 

  


Staring down at Neely, he advanced towards her. “I’m gettin’ real tired of your foul plays,” he growled. 

  


Neely smirked, ready to swing. “I’m ready to make at least one more home run,” she said, “Who’da thought the back of your head would make a nice home plate?”

  


“No more home runs for you,” Dogpound snarled, picking up the dumpster and tossing it at Neely. She stood there, watching as it picked up speed as it flew towards her, jumping up on the dumpster just before it could hit her, leaping at Donnie, who caught her and spun her around and launched her at Dogpound. Neely pulled her arms back, gearing up for a powerful swing as she dived towards Dogpound. She could hear her bat make a loud thwack that roared in her ears as it made contact with the side of Dogpound’s face, and sent him flying back towards the opposite end of the alley, displacing asphalt as he slid against the ground. 

  


Donnie floated down next to her and the two teens kept an eye on Dogpound, waiting for him to make a move. Several seconds went by and he still laid there, not moving. April came down the fire escape and gave Donnie and Neely a high five. 

  


April stepped out into the street, only to see the van and other others had disappeared. “Guys,” she called out, “Where did the others go?”

  


“The Foot must have gone after the tank and the guys went after them,” Donnie said, pulling out his phone and tracking his brothers’ locations. “Got them! They’re a few blocks over! April, Neely grab on.” 

  


Powering up his battle shell, Donnie went back into hover mode. Neely jumped up and grabbed onto Donnie’s legs, and April did the same, grabbing onto Neely’s and the three flew off after the rest of the group.

* * *

“Okay, when we get home, I am going to bug Donald into making us our own go-karts,” Leon said happily, riding on the back of the patrol buggies. 

  


“They’re patrol buggies,” Donatello corrected. “Not go-karts and they’re not ready!”

  


“It’s still awesome!” Michelangelo exclaimed, “Does it have a radio?”

  


“I just said it wasn’t ready!”

  


“Can you two not do this at this moment?” Casey said, “We have a tanker to keep up with! Can’t you make this thing go any faster?”

  


“I am going as fast as I make this thing go!” snapped Leonardo, quickly turning the wheel of the patrol buggies to make a hard turn. Blue eyes widened when the steering wheel came off and frantically stuck it back on the cart. “No more hard turns and we’ll be fine.”

  


“Raphael, see if you can get me closer to the tank,” Sunita asked, pulling off her cloaking brooch and handing it over to Casey. 

  


“What are you trying to do Ms. Slime?” Raphael pulled a lever in the middle of the patrol buggy. The patrol buggy split down the middle, separating Michelangelo, Raphael, Sunita and Mikey from Donatello, Leonardo, and Casey. 

  


“Gonna see if I can get close to the tank and see if I can unloosen the hinges of the truck,” Sunita explained. Looking at Leonardo, “You all try to corner the Purple Dragons. Go back for Raph if you can.” 

  


Leonardo nodded, pulling back and turning down the next corner that came up, leaving the three teens to their plan. Raphael pressed his foot down on the pedal, speeding up the buggy, slowly inching closer to the back of the truck. Sunita edged closer towards the front of Raphael’s cart, stretching out towards the metal ladder attached to the truck. Her fingers lightly brushed across the rungs of the ladder before tightly latching on just as the truck made a sharp turn around another corner. 

  


Sunita climbed up the ladder, making her way to the top. Once she was there, she manipulated the slime in her body to stick to the smooth metal of the tanker so she could easily crawl across the top of the tanker. Sunita managed to slip in between the space between the tractor unit and the tank itself and started searching for a way to unhinge the tank. She slipped through the cramped space that was underneath where the tank of acid was attached to the rest of the truck and found a handle slightly sticking out. 

  


“That has to be it,” she said to herself, “But how do I pull it out?”

  


Looking back, she saw Raphael, Michelangelo, Mikey trailing behind the tank, weaving in and out of her line of sight. She slipped out of the tight space and made herself stick to the side of the tank and waved in an attempt to catch their attention. 

  


Mikey seemed to notice, got Raphael to speed up a bit until the patrol buggy with the three turtles was right next to the truck. 

  


“Did you figure it out yet?” Mikey asked.

  


Nodding, “There’s a handle right underneath me. I think if you pull it out, that’ll separate the acid from the truck.” she explained. “I need you to lasso your kusari-fundo around this handle and pull on it.”

  


Mikey stood up, swinging his weapon before throwing it out towards the handle, and the bladed end of his kusari-fundo wrapped around the handle. 

  


“Nice job,” Michelangelo said. 

  


The Foot soldier driving the truck seemed to have noticed that they were up to something, making the truck veer into another hard turn, offsetting Sunita’s balance and providing Mikey with just enough room to effectively yank the handle out mid-turn. Raphael caught Sunita as she fell off the truck, and pulled back the buggy, creating distance between them and the tank as it slowly pulled away from the truck as it crashed into the sidewalk. 

  


“Impressive!” Casey shouted as the others pulled up. 

  


Donnie, Raph, April, and Neely, came in from above. The two girls and Raph jumped off close to the ground and landed on their feet as Donnie landed. Leonardo slowed down to a stop and he, Donatello, and Casey hopped out of the patrol buggies. 

  


“Okay, Dogpound’s taken care of, Purple Dragons beaten, and we managed to get the chemical from the Foot. How do we get rid of it?” Raph said, counting off what they had managed to accomplish. 

  


“Don’t be so certain about that,” a voice growled in his ear. Raph turned around, coming face to face with Dogpound standing right behind him, and barely managed to dodge the punch that the other threw at him. 

  


“Aw man, I thought we took care of this mutt!” Neely complained, running towards him to land a hit. 

  


“He’s an Akita guys,” Donnie said in a bored voice. “Can we at least insult our enemies with the right species please?”

  


Raphael, brandishing his sais, rolled his eyes. “Akita, mutt, I don’t care what he is. All I know is that he’s going down!” He lunged at the dog mutant, jumping on to an arm that missed him, running up to deliver a jumping kick. Dogpound picked up a car parked next to him, swinging around to hit Michelangelo. Michelangelo backflipped away from the car against the wall and jumped away on top of the dumpster when Dogpound slammed the car into the wall. Knees bent, he propelled himself forward, cracking a smoke bomb in Dogpound’s face, disappearing and reappearing behind the taller mutant, swinging in from a scaffold, kicking him in the back. 

  


Mikey wrapped his kusari-fundo around one of Dogpound’s arms and pulled back before Dogpound overpowered him, jerking on the whip sending the box turtle flying into the ground. 

  


A Foot ninja came near the truck, pulled out a hose, and ran towards the manhole cover. April stopped him midway, kicking him in the back, knocking him away from the manhole cover. “Guys, he’s trying to pour the chemical in! Don’t let him get close to the manhole!” 

  


“I’m already on it,” Leon said, coming from behind right into a kick that sent him flying into scaffolds. Leonardo caught him by the hand and swung him back into the direction of the Foot soldier. Leon sliced at the ninja, only for the blades of his swords to clash against the sword the Foot soldier was holding. He felt the soldier push back against his odachi, and decided to lean back against the asphalt, temporarily allowing the soldier to overpower him before kicking upwards into the other ninja’s chest which sent them flying backwards into the tank.

  


The Foot soldier’s sword pierced the metal of the tank, causing a puke green liquid to gush out. 

  


“What did Donnie say about this stuff?” Leonardo asked, eyes lighting up in realization. “Michelangelo, throw your water balloon!”

  


“Not yet!” Leon shouted.

  


_ “Raph, make everyone lure Dogpound close to the tank!”  _ Leon yelled in his mind-meld with Raph. 

  


_ “On it!” _

  


Leon and Leonardo pulled April away from the manhole cover while edging the Foot soldier towards the tank. Raph and the others managed to lure Dogpound closer to the tank. Once Dogpound and the Foot soldier were trapped, Michelangelo threw his water balloon at the puddle of acid and everyone ducked behind the cars parked along the sidewalk as the explosion went off. 

  


When the explosion died down, the twelve teens looked up to see the explosion dying down and that Dogpound and the Foot soldier had left. They all high-fived and fist-bumped as they cheered in victory knowing that they saved their home and began making their way to the lair. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Feelings makes an appearance, feelings are discussed, and Leonardo has a panic attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter that people have been waiting for, Dr. Feelings finally makes an appearance(and is the second longest chapter in the fic so far)! I hope you lads are happy. I have some plans for Dr. Feelings to pop up again and have to figure out what episodes that would happen in. Originally, I wanted this chapter to be each kid talking about their feelings but I got bored with that halfway through and it felt like it would have been a slog to read through if I didn't enjoy writing it. So, my brain said 'hey give Leonardo a panic attack to spice the chapter up.' 
> 
> I did it and it made the rest of the chapter so much better in my opinion. 
> 
> Also, we finally reached the end/aftermath of "Panic in the Sewers." I'm not sure how I did with doing the integration of the Rise kids into the 2012 verse/canon episodes, so I'd love to hear feedback and thoughts on it! I already have some ideas on how I want to write some scenes/episodes within the first season, especially the first season finale. But this chapter and the next few chapters will be an 'intermission/behind the scenes' of sorts-and we're also possibly getting into fixing canon territory around in those chapters but who knows-until the next 'episode' which is uhhh, "Mousers, Attack." Damn, I wanted it to be Karai's introductory episode but whatever, I may have a few gears turning for it. 
> 
> Chapter 10 is finished and will come out whenever I write out chapter 11. Seeing that I'm nearing the end of the semester, which means finals season is coming about, so that chapter might not be fully written until when I finish around early December. We'll see what happens, maybe the special interest will win out against my school work. -folds hands- Who knows. 
> 
> Either way, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! I'll response to all of your comments at some point! :'D

As the group made their way back to the lair, they continually praisied each other as they walked along the tracks. They had gotten several boxes of pizza as a celebratory meal as well as some soft drinks and wings. 

“I gotta give props to Slime Princess over here,” Raphael said with a grin, “If you hadn’t thought of that plan of yours, we would have still been tryin’ to stop that truck!”

Sunita blushed, thankful that she was in her slime form at the moment so that no one could see her skin flush from embarrassment at the compliment. “We couldn’t have done it without Mikey,” she said, trying to downplay her part in tonight’s excursion. 

April hopped over the turnstile leading into the lair, “Well, we all had our part to play tonight and we succeeded,” she said with a smile. 

“April’s right,” Donatello agreed. 

Master Splinter stepped out into the common area, a soft smile coming about as he saw his children come into the lair. “I see that you all managed to stop Shredder’s plan?”

“Yes Sensei,” said Leonardo. 

“I owe you all my gratitude and an apology,” said Master Splinter, looking at his children in earnest. 

The kids looked at him in confusion and he held up a hand to preemptively stop any protests and curiosities. “Fear clouded your minds. However, it was not the fault of Shredder, but me, who fueled that fear. You all overcame your fear, worked together, and performed admirably.”

“I think this whole Shredder thing has been weighing down on us and the constant training didn’t help any,” Mikey said. A cloud of smoke appeared and slowly evaporated, slowly revealing the turtle wearing large, rimless glasses with a microphone in front of his mouth, an oversized brown sweater, and a pair of dark blue jeans. “I think it’s time for Dr. Feelings to take over.”

“Dr. Feelings?” questioned Rapheal, giving a side-eye at Leon, Donnie, and Raph. “This a regular thing with you all?”

“He helped me reconnect with Shelldon,” Donnie said, scratching at Shelldon’s ears. “So Dr. Feelings is okay in my books.”

“We’re really doing this?” Donatello asked, Leonardo shrugged as Mikey pushed them all towards the common area and made them all sit down, their food forgotten for now. 

Mikey stood in front of everyone and clasped his hands together. “Okay everyone, we’ve all been under a lot of stress lately and we’re going to be talking about our feelings tonight so we don’t end up doing anything that we’ll regret,” he explained. “Who would like to start us off?”

“I’m not really a feelings kinda guy, Mikey,” Raphael said, “I think I’d be better off punching things instead.”

“Why don’t you start us off then?” Mikey said, turning to face him. “Make sure you use I statements.”

Raphael sucked in his teeth and stared at the ground, refusing to look anyone in the eye. “I...felt scared,” he started out slowly, folding his arms together. “I’m the brawn of the group and I’m supposed to punch things. All of this talk about the Shredder not being merciful with us made me feel like no matter how hard I punched anything, it wouldn’t have saved anyone from the Shredder. I dunno, I sound dumb even saying it.”

“Now, now Raphael,” Mikey tutted disapprovingly, “We will not be putting ourselves down when we’re discussing our feelings. Your feelings matter.”

“I don’t think they matter much if all I feel is anger and ready to punch things,” Raph retorted, feeling strangely vulnerable. 

Mikey didn’t like what he was hearing and frowned. “Say my feelings matter,” Mikey ordered, frown deepening when Raphael hunched in on himself. “Say it.”

“My...feelings matter,” Raphael gritted out, eyeing Mikey uneasily as he said words that were practically foreign to him. “My feelings matter.”

“Exactly!” Mikey said excitedly. He was well aware that it would take a lot of reinforcement to get Raphael to truly believe this but he stopped for now, taking note of how the other was growing uncomfortable. 

Raphael went quiet and Casey went next, “Every time I tried to sleep, I was back at the Crying Titan, helping the Shredder and then fighting with the Hamatos to help save the world. But my brain constantly came up with new things where I didn’t betray the Shredder and he congratulated me for helping him, where he succeeded in his plans and everyone was gone. I found solace in the fact that our Shredder was gone but the Shredder here scares the shit out of me,” she said, voice growing strained as she stumbled over her words, and the soothing hands of her girlfriends didn’t calm her as it should have. “He’s human so that made me a little more comfortable but I was so worried the first time we encountered him. What if Neely missed when she hit the Shredder? What if he started attacking before the turtles could step in? What if one of us ended up trapped in that gauntlet of his like Leonardo did? My brain did a wonderful job of giving me too many what-ifs and hypotheticals that ended up with us dying and I couldn’t sleep. Not thinking about that.”

Neely and Sunita leaned in, kissing Casey on her cheeks. “I’m so sorry I made you worry like that,” Neely cooed, giving her girlfriend another kiss. 

“It’s okay babe. I know you’re a badass,” Casey whispered, bumping her forehead with Neely’s. 

Mikey sat down on the floor, holding a pillow tight to his chest. “Guess I’m next huh?” he said aloud, trying to psych himself up. “I don’t know how to put this into words, or even the right words to use...but I felt powerless? Useless? I sometimes thought back to how we fought against our Shredder the first time. I threw a damn freight train at him and he tore through that like it was _nothing._ We couldn’t do anything when he attacked the lair. With all this training, it just felt like no matter what I did, how hard I trained, none of what I did, what we did, was good enough in your eyes. ” He looked down at the floor, “I dunno, I don’t really have the words to say what I mean.”

Donnie scooted down on the floor, over to where Mikey was, and held his arms out for a hug. Mikey fell into the hug, wrapping his arms around Donnie. “Thanks, Donald,” Mikey mumbled into his neck.

“No problem Angelo,” Donnie said, tightening his arms around Mikey. Shelldon flew in after Donnie and the softshell turtle scratched his ears. “Uh, guess it’s my turn. I’m not good with _feelings_ or expressing my emotions but here we go.”

He let go of Mikey for a moment, starting to unlatch his battle shell. 

“Donnie, you don’t need to do that,” Raph whispered. 

The younger hesitated, before shaking his head and continued to take off his battle shell. “I think I need to,” Donnie said simply, turning around so his back faced the group and the soft hiss came from his battle shell echoing throughout the lair as his battle shell came off, revealing several deep scratches on his leathery shell. 

He kept his back turned towards everyone else and Mikey resumed hugging him. “When we first fought the Shredder, I used all of my tech against him and it didn’t make a dent. He got to me, scratched up my shell and the only reason I got away from him was because I threw a _handkerchief_ at him,” Donnie said, tracing the lines on his knee pads. “I always struggled to keep up with my brothers because of my softshell and improved on my tech so I could. Constant talk of the Shredder made me think back to the first time we fought him, except my brain made what-ifs and scenarios where somehow he manages to scratch me up even more and I can’t escape.”

Donnie clammed his mouth shut, unwilling to talk anymore. The silence made him uncomfortable; he would have lashed out after exposing himself and his vulnerability but he knew that everyone was still on edge from the whole Shredder thing.

Michelangelo anxiously twiddled his thumbs. “The Shredder’s gauntlets scared me and I was worried that we were gonna lose Leo before Neely stepped in,” he started off, flicking his fingers across the ridges of his knee pads. “I couldn’t stop thinking about the stupid gauntlets during training and I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen we got caught in those gauntlets. I wanted my dad to hug me and tell me it was okay. Not punish us with more training.”

Leonardo’s blue eyes flitted over to Splinter, trying to gauge his father’s reaction from hearing everyone else speak. The rat mutant seemed so stoic hearing all of this, and Leonardo wondered if his father sounded mad and would he get madder with what he was about to say. Splinter caught the teenager staring at him, jumping slightly before looking down at the floor. 

“You sounded mad- _furious_ when we started training, and you only got madder as we continued. I didn’t know why you were so mad. Were you mad at us for not being strong enough to fight Shredder? Was the training our punishment for almost dying? Were you disappointed in me for being a bad leader? I tried really hard to make sense of it but I didn’t know what to do and I tried really hard to make sure everyone was under control during training because I didn’t know what you would do if we misbehaved,” he said, voice soft with defeat. Mayhem jumped out of Neely’s arms and teleported into his arms. Leonardo jumped back slightly in surprise, gently wrapping his arms around Mayhem. The odd creature was a slight comfort in comparison to the anxiety that was starting to skyrocket in his chest. “I was...afraid. I didn’t know what to do. I tried my best to make sure that I was excellent in training and I-I-”

Leon quickly caught on to Leonardo’s trembling fingers, breathing becoming short and quick. The red-eared slider bent down in front of Leonardo, blocking the other from seeing the rest of the group. “I think he’s having a panic attack,” he said to Raph, who appeared on the other side. “Mini-me, how are you feeling?”

Leonardo tried to speak but found no words would come out. His mouth felt dry, whatever he wanted to say died in his throat before he could get a chance to say it, and settled for shaking his head. 

“Okay you can’t speak, that’s fine,” Leon said. “Can Raph and I touch you?”

Leonardo thought for a moment, nodding his head. Raph rested his hand on Leonardo’s shell, hoping his heavy hands could ground the younger turtle while Leon held his arm. 

“I want you to inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, and exhale for eight, okay?” Leon instructed, modeling what he wanted Leonardo to do. It took Leonardo a little while to catch on but he eventually managed to follow Leon’s instructions and mimicked the other’s breathing pattern. 

Between Raph’s heavy hand on his shell and the breathing exercise that Leon had him do, Leonardo soon came back to himself pretty quickly. Once he was fully grounded, he looked past his counterpart, realized that everyone was there, and had seen him like this. The fifteen-year-old felt shame rise in him and forced himself to stand up, ignoring how his legs felt like jelly as he pushed away Leon and Raph. He looked down to see everyone staring at him, including his father, with worry on their face. Leonardo couldn’t handle the pity, couldn’t handle the fact that everyone knew he was failing at being a leader, and he couldn’t handle how Master Splinter would react having seen his weakness. 

So he ran out of the lair.

* * *

  
  


Leonardo was unsure how long he'd been hiding in one of the abandoned sewer pipes, ghosting his fingers across the tails of his mask. He shouldn’t have ran out of the lair like a coward, he should have faced his punishment for being weak like a true leader did, if he could even call himself that. Captain Ryan didn’t run away from his problems. Captain Ryan wasn’t a disappointment to his father. Captain Ryan wasn’t a failure but Leonardo was. 

He would _never_ be like Captain Ryan. 

Two voices yelling in the heard brought him out of his thoughts. His first instinct was to hide deeper in the sewer pipe where the shadows obscured him, unsheathing his katanas and crouching down, on guard, and ready to attack anyone if need be. Leonardo flinched when a harsh, bright light was flashed into the sewer pipe, trying to hide deeper in the sewer pipe and only stopped when he recognized the two voices as Leon and Raph. 

“There you are,” Raph said, voice coated in worry. “I thought we wouldn’t find you. Everyone was worried about you, you know.”

“I don’t want-I don’t want to go back yet,” Leonardo said quietly. “I’m not ready to face them.”

Leon held up a bag that held something and smirked, “I figured you might say that, so I brought you some food.” He hopped in the sewer pipe, with Raph following in after him. Leon set the bag down, pulling out a box of pizza, a box of breadsticks and wings, and a two-liter bottle of Sprite. “You gotta eat something.”

Leonardo didn’t reach out for the food. He felt like he couldn’t eat the pizza as much as he wanted to and he didn’t know why. Raph leaned over and unlatched Leonardo’s tight grip on his katanas, replacing them with his Captain Ryan doll. The doll had some chipped paint across the body and was missing a part of his leg but the moment he held his beloved hero in his hands, Leonardo felt a bit calmer. 

“Your brothers said that you liked holding him whenever you were upset,” Raph explained. “I figured bringing him along with some food might help you with whatever you were feeling right now.” 

A quiet “Thanks,” is how Leo responded before he slowly opened the box of pizza, pulled a slice, and took small bites. “It’s still warm? How?”

“Oh, we reheated it,” said Leon, grabbing a slice of his own. “You wanna talk about what’s got you so worked up?”

“Huh?” 

“What’s wrong?” Raph said. “What caused you to have that panic attack-?”

“That’s what they are?” Leonardo said dumbly. Raph and Leon nodded. “I think I was afraid of what Master Splinter would think when he found out how weak I was, how much of a bad leader I was, and how much of a bad son I was in general.”

“What?” squawked Raph and Leon in unison. “What made you think that?”

Leonardo rubbed the captain’s plastic black hair, wondering how he should put his thoughts into something that made sense. “It’s my fault that my brothers got hurt by the Shredder-”

“Well that’s not true,” Raph refuted, handing Leo half of a breadstick. “That’s the Shredder’s fault, not yours. You guys gave your all.”

“But I’ve should have been stronger, faster, better-”

“Against a ninja master?” Leon scoffed, “You’re fifteen and you’re still learning. Don’t beat yourself up.”

“I made a bad call though,” Leonardo protested, taking a hesitant bite out of his breadstick.

“And? Leaders make bad calls sometimes, that doesn't’ mean that they’re weak,” Raph argued, voice calm and steady. It wouldn’t help any if either one of them got upset at the younger turtle. “I’ve made a few bad calls while leading my bros, does that make me a bad leader?”

The snapping turtle hoped that Leonardo would see the point he was trying to make and felt a bit of relief wash through him when the other slightly shook his head. “If me making a few bad calls doesn’t make you a bad leader, then how are you a bad leader?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve never lead your brothers into a situation where they were almost killed,” Leonard spat out.

“Oh, he has,” Leon answered quickly. “There the first time we fought Draxum, that incident with Big Mama, Draxum throwing me off a roof.”

“You got thrown off a _roof?”_

Mid bite, Leon nodded, realized that any normal person or mutant would be horrified hearing that he was thrown off a building. “Oh Raph saved me, don’t worry. But like, I trust Raph. I know that he would do whatever it would take to keep us safe and I’m pretty sure your brothers feel the same way, no matter how many mistakes you’ve made.”

Leonardo took another bite of his breadstick. “You think so?”

“Pssh yea! I know so,” Leon said. He opened the bottle of Sprite and took several gulps and closed it back. “You gotta have faith in yourself.”

“I try really hard to be like Captain Ryan,” Leonardo confessed. “He’s brave. He’s never afraid, he’s not a failure, he’s not weak, and he doesn’t disappoint his dad. But I’ll never be like Captain Ryan.

“But you aren’t Captain Ryan. You’re Leonardo, and you’re your own turtle,” Raph said. “Of course you wouldn’t be like Captain Ryan. You should be the best turtle you can be.”

“Besides, you aren’t a failure, or weak, or a disappointment to Dad,” Leon said. “You’re doing your best and you’ll make mistakes but that doesn’t make you irredeemable.”

Leonardo held his Captain Ryan figure closer to his plastron, “Sometimes it feels like I’m in over my head and I have no clue what I’m doing. I can’t ask Father because I don’t want him to regret making me leader,” he said in a small voice. 

“I can help you,” Raph said. “I’ve been leading my brothers for a while now so I could definitely help you.”

“Really?” Leonardo said, looking up at Raph earnestly. “You’d help me? Even after what I said about you being leader?”

“That’s water under the bridge,” Raph smiled, “Of course I’d help you. Anything for my little brother but first, help me out by eating some more food.”

“Okay.” Leonardo finished off his breadstick and grabbed another slice of pizza as the other two turtles continued eating. 

The three turtles finished eating their food and slowly made their way back to the lair, exchanging stories about their brothers as they walked back. Leonardo, Raph, and Leon made it back to the entrance of the lair where Master Splinter greeted them. 

“Leonardo, my son,” he said softly. 

Leonardo forced himself to look up. “Yes, Sensei?” 

He hadn’t expected his father to pull him into a hug but the fifteen-year-old sank into the warmth that his father had offered to him. “I am truly sorry my son. I am sorry that I made you feel like you were unworthy or a disappointment. I want you to know that that will never be the case. You may make mistakes but that will never lessen the love I have for you.”

Leonardo felt his eyes moisten at his father’s words and wrapped his arms around his father’s waist. “I love you, Father.”

“I love you too my son.”

Raph and Leon watched on in silence.

_“We did good didn’t we?”_ Leon said proudly in his mind-meld with Raph. 

_“Yea, we did,”_ Raph said back. _“I’m proud of you Leon.”_

Leon wished he could high five or hug his brother without ruining the moment. Instead, he settled for a subtle fist bump which Raph returned. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids go to IHOP. That's the entire adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter violently accosted me, grabbed me by my shoulders, looked me in my eyes and said, "The kids are going to get food from IHOP, that's the whole chapter, no other thoughts allowed" and I went "lmao, okay." So here we are.
> 
> Look I know that I would post this chapter when I wrote and finished chapter 11, but that hasn't happened yet. *mild shrugs* I signed up for five secret santas and got a lot of ideas for other fics and haven't had any inspiration to work on this one. But I'm going to act like if I post this one, I'll get some form of inspiration finish the next chapter. I still don't know how I want to wade through this fic, I want it to be a bit light hearted with several serious moments and some character growth but I want it to be fun, ya know? But I overthink a lot of things here, maybe I'll figure out how to write certain moments/episode/character arcs along the way, I dunno. 
> 
> I have a different Rise/2012 fic in progress, which a bit more uhh heavy and not as light-hearted. Angsty? Sure, I guess. I won't say much but it's Raph-centric, since we need more Raph centric fics. 
> 
> What else? Come bug me on Twitter @cosmonautstitch, I have many thoughts about turtles and I promise I am extremely funny.

When Leonardo had returned and finished hugging Master Splinter, everyone else had hugged and fretted over the fifteen-year-old turtle making sure that he was truly okay and Leonardo wasn’t really sure how to handle that many people fretting over him like that. Before, he had his father and his three younger brothers but even then, it was clear to Leonardo that everyone was dependent on him: Master Splinter needed a good older son and warrior that he could rely on and his younger brothers needed a good older brother to look up to. They needed him to be a good older brother and son, even before he was declared the leader. He had learned how to be more independent and low-maintenance so his father wouldn’t be as stressed with Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello leaning on his shoulders and needing assurance from him. He was learning how to be a good leader from Captain Ryan. He had learned how to turn his most personal feelings inward so he could be a better leader and brother. 

That was all he ever needed.

Or so he thought. 

Then he made mistakes, almost got his brothers killed by the Shredder, and his new family was tied up in this mess because of him. Captain Ryan didn’t bring his friends and family into messes he made but Leo did, and that made him a failure, right?

That’s what he thought, but Leon and Raph said so otherwise. They seemed to know what they were talking about and were even willing to help him be a better leader. He didn’t know how to handle it, he still didn’t think he was worthy of it. 

Leonardo felt one of his younger brothers, Raphael, clasped a hand on his shoulders. He flinched slightly and turned around to face his immediate younger brother. “Hey,” he said weakly. “What’s up, little brother?”

“You okay now?” Raphael asked.

Huh, of all the things Leonardo was expecting him to ask, that wasn’t it. Was he okay now? He felt a lot better than before. He was no longer panicky and on edge and having his Captain Ryan figure in his hand helped out a bit. “Yea, I think I’m a lot better than before.”

Raphael jerked his head in a nod, “I’m not good at this whole emotion thing, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here,” he said awkwardly. 

Leonardo wasn’t sure how to do that, how to express his emotions so openly, but he thought he could try. He smiled a little, “Okay.” 

“Get a blanket and some pillows, Fearless. I heard we’re supposed to be having a movie night,” Raphael said. “Sunita said it would be a good way to kick off our break from training.”

“What movie?” He asked, then realized what Raphael had said. “Break from training?”

Raphael nodded. “I dunno, some kid movie I think,” said Raphael. “Go on and get your things and meet us back out here.”

With a nod, Leonardo ran off to his room, grabbed his Captain Ryan blanket and pillow, and met everyone else in the atrium of the lair. Neely, Donnie, and Donatello were setting up the tv to her laptop, Michelangelo and Sunita were popping popcorn, Mikey and Raph brought out bowls of popcorn and potato chips while Leon, April, Raphael(holding Spike in his arms), and Sunita sat on the bench waiting for the movie to start. Leonardo grabbed the beanbag in the corner, pulled it towards the four teens sitting down, and flopped his body into the beanbag. The beanbag sunk under his weight and he relished how comfortable it was as he curled up in the beanbag, pulled his blanket over him, and waited for the movie to start. 

Eventually, Neely, Donnie, and Donatello finished setting up the tv and Neely had decided that they would watch the Lego Movie. Playing the movie on her laptop, the first few frames of the movie appeared on the tv screen. Everyone else soon rushed in, movie snacks in their hands and found a place on the bench or floor, and made themselves comfortable as they watched the movie, eventually falling asleep midway through the movie.

* * *

The next morning, the kids slowly woke up one by one .  They untangled themselves from the mess of limbs and soft blankets, brushed their teeth and they all tiredly shuffled back into the common area, flopping back underneath their blankets. 

“I’m starving,” Donatello complained from underneath the warmth of his blankets. 

“I could make you a pizza shake bro!” Michelangelo offered with a wide smile. 

Leon gave the youngest orange banded turtle a weird look, “A pizza shake?”

“A milkshake made out of pizza,” Raphael explained. Seeing Leon’s face crinkle in either disgust or revulsion made him nod his head in agreement. “I know.”

“Mikey, who hurt you?” Angelo asked, staring at the turtle. 

Donatello shook his head, “No thanks. I was thinking more pancakes, but not algae and worm pancakes,” he said, sticking his tongue out at the thought in mild disgust. “I don’t think I can take any more algae and worms.”

“Algae and worm pancakes?” Angelo asked incredulously, “I need you to answer me honestly: who hurt y’all?”

“You all never had algae and worms?” said Raphael, “It’s all we ate for fifteen years.”

“Fifteen years?” Leon said, holding his fingers to his temples. “ _ Who hurt you?” _

“Master Splinter couldn’t get a lot of food that wasn’t contaminated or already rotting,” Leonardo explained, “So we had to do with what he managed to bring home to us.”

“So let me get this straight,” Casey started. “You all ate algae and worms for fifteen years and you haven’t had pancakes that aren’t made from algae and worms.”

The four turtles nodded their heads. 

Casey shook her head disapprovingly before looking at them with a steely resolve, “I swear that we are going to get you all normal pancakes,” she said before turning to her girlfriends. “We gotta go to IHOP.”

“IHOP?” Leonardo asked, “What’s IHOP?”

“They don’t even know what IHOP is!” Casey whined, “We gotta fix that. Babes, you know I can’t let an injustice like that slide.”

As one of the eldest in the group, Neely stood up and clasped her hands together. “I decree that we’re going to go to IHOP,” she declared. “As soon as we find one to go to.”

“There’s one like twenty minutes away if we use the subway,” April said, searching through her navigation app. “There might be a slight delay but like, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Subways? IHOPs? I dunno, what would Master Splinter think about this?” Raphael asked hesitantly.

"Now you're concerned with what Master Splinter thinks?" said Michelangelo, folding his arms together.

Raphael rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t really willing to let us go topside on our mutation day, what makes you think he’d be okay with this?”

“Okay with what?” Master Splinter asked, coming up from behind the group.

Raphael stared wide-eyed at his father, holding his hands up in surprise, “Hey Sensei, we’re just planning-”

“We’re going to IHOP!” Sunita said excitedly, clapping her hands together. 

Splinter’s ears twitched in curiosity, “I...HOP? What is this place?”

“It’s a restaurant, where people go and order breakfast food. We were going to bring you back something if you wanted food,” April volunteered. “We were thinking about taking the subway to get there quicker.”

Splinter mulled this over, “That sounds dangerous. What if humans see you?”

“Oh, we got that covered!” Raph said, silently asking for Michelangelo to hand him a smoke bomb. With a smoke bomb in hand, he threw it down on the ground. A cloud of black smoke appeared, covering Raph’s body and when it evaporated, he was wearing a dark blue baseball cap, a red hoodie, and light grey sweatpants. “People don’t really pay attention to you if you’re wearing clothes, Pops. We figured if everyone wore these, then we can blend into the environment better instead of having to stick to the shadows all the time.”

“Ya know, like a  _ ninja,” _ Donnie finished for him. 

“That...actually sounds like a brilliant plan. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of it before now,” Master Splinter mused. He gave a small smile and nodded his head wisely. These other versions of his sons were brilliant in their own right. He and his sons would benefit from learning from them every now and then. “Go. Have fun. Come back if you run into trouble.”

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello’s mouth hung open in shock. They had expected their father to say no and they were ready to plead with their father to have another teenage experience but they weren’t ready nor were they expecting him to readily agree. “Really?” they said in unison. “We can go?”

“Of course,” Master Splinter said, “You all are growing children and need to have experiences that every teenager has. It wouldn’t be fair of me to rob you of that.”

“Thanks, Sensei,” Leonardo said. He spoke for all of them when he said that because he knew that they wouldn’t get a chance to have many experiences like normal teenagers did but they were eternally grateful that their father understood. 

“Did you want us to bring you anything back?” Sunita asked. 

“Nothing in particular Ms. Sunita. I’ll be fine with whatever you all bring me,” Master Splinter said amicably, awed at Sunita’s kindness. It reminded him of when Michelangelo was a turtle tot, who always tried to involve him in the games he played with his brothers, always reminding him that there was a spot available for him. 

“Okay!” Sunita beamed. She stuck on her cloaking brooch, and her human form appeared. Master Splinter slowly walked back into his room to meditate. “Donnie, what’s up with your eyebrows?”

“What do you mean...oh,” Donnie’s voice trailed off when April showed him how he looked. “Give me a sharpie, stat. Gotta redraw my eyebrows.”

April gave him a sharpie marker, and Donnie shot up off the bench to both go get dressed and redraw his eyebrows. 

“Hold up,” Michelangelo said, holding his hands up to make sure he heard the elder turtle correctly. “He  _ draws _ his eyebrows on?”

“Oh yea, of course. How’d you think he got such magnificent eyebrows?” Angelo said with a shrug. “He’s been doing it for nine years now.”

Donatello stared in the direction Donnie went off in, “They work like normal eyebrows?” he asked, “But how? That should be impossible.”

Leon shrugged his shoulders. “They just do my guy. Donnie’s got that magic,” he said. 

“I think we’re all overlooking the fact that he’s been doing it for nine years,” Michelangelo said. “That’s some serious dedication. Does he use a magic marker or something?”

“Don’t think about it too hard, you’ll get a headache if you do. Besides, we’re supposed to be getting dressed,” Raph said, getting up to do exactly that. 

The other six turtles left the common area to go get dressed while April, Neely, and Casey went off to do the same once Donnie got out of the bathroom. They all soon met back out in the common room minutes later. 

“Are we all ready to go?” April asked.

She was met with a chorus of cheers and they all made their way out of the lair, making their way to the subway. 

* * *

Walking the streets of New York City with eight ninja turtles was interesting, to say the least. Leon, Angelo, Don, and Raph all stuck to the sidewalks and walked the streets of New York City like normal human beings while Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo constantly snuck around, jumping in and out of alleys, peering from street corners.

“Could you all stop doing that?” Casey snarked, turning around to face the four younger turtles and putting her hands on her hips. “You’re gonna draw attention to yourselves!”

“Sorry Casey,” Donatello said. 

“It’s kinda hard not to when you were literally trained your whole life to sneak around,” Leonardo said, his voice lacking any bite or sarcasm to it. 

“Yea, I figured,” Casey said sympathetically. “I’m the same way too but like nothing’s going to happen while we’re out and about.”

Leonardo gave her a look. “You promise?” He wasn’t one for promises, making them or keeping them, but that small child inside of him needed reassurance. 

“I promise,” she said honestly.

The walk to the subway was uneventful after that. The four younger turtles were trying their best to get used to being visible and away from the comfort of the shadows. When they had made it, they descended down the steep set of stairs and the younger four turtles were amazed by the scenery, the sights, and the people inside the subway. 

“Wow,” Raphael said in awe. “I’d never thought I’d see New York during the day.”

“It’s amazing,” Michelangelo said.

April stuck her head in between the two turtles. “Come on, I gotta get everyone a MetroCard,” she said, pulling them towards a vending machine in the wall. 

“What’s a MetroCard?” Donatello asked. 

“It’s a card that you have to get to ride the subway,” April explained, starting the process of getting a card. She pressed a few buttons on the screen. “There’s twelve of us, so we need 12 cards.”

“How much is it?” Donnie asked, “I can totally wire you the money to pay for it.”

“A round trip is five-fifty. I’m going to put nine bucks on each of the cards,” April explained, pulling out her dad’s card to pay for her MetroCard. “I’m using my dad’s card to pay for them.”

“Twelve cards, nine dollars on each one, that’s eighty-one dollars,” Donnie muttered to himself as he pressed a few buttons on his phone and wired some money to April. “That should do it. There’s a few extra bucks on there to cover taxes.”

April stared at Donnie, “How’d you get the money? Where’d you get the money from?”

“Don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to handle the answers to,” he said simply.

April nodded. It’s not that deep. She didn’t need to know that badly. April managed to get the rest of the MetroCards without a hitch and handed them out to everyone once they were all obtained. Now that they had their cards and swiped at the turnstiles, the group started looking for the right train to get on with only the signs above them as guides.

“Alright, Google Maps says we need to go uptown, so look for signs that Uptown,” she instructed. 

“What’s the difference between Uptown and Downtown?” Leon asked. 

“Downtown heads south in Manhattan, Uptown heads north,” Casey explained simply.

“I see,” Leon said, going back to searching for signs that signaled uptown.

“Found it,” Leonardo announced to the group, pointing up at the sign that said ‘Uptown.’ Everyone walked down the stairs and looked to April to guide them. 

“Okay guys,” she said, “We’re at the right stop, we just have to wait for the train to come-oh, it’s here! Let’s get on!”

The twelve teenagers shuffled their way into the subway car, all of them either sitting down in the seats or hanging on to the pole. April looked down at her T-Phone, “We’re on here for ten stops, we’re getting off at 3rd Avenue and East 14 Street.”

Raph nodded, holding onto the leather handle above his head, and caught Leonardo staring, “Don’t stare,” he whispered. “New Yorkers hate it when you stare.”

“Oh my bad,” Leonardo said, pulling out his T-Phone and focused his attention there.

* * *

Twenty minutes later and they made it to their final stop. The group hopped off the subway car and following April’s lead, walked out of the subway station, walked the last three minutes, and soon, they were standing in front of IHOP. 

“Pancakes!” Donatello said excitedly, “Guys we are finally going to have non-algae and worms pancakes for the first time in our lives.”

“It’s going to be one of the greatest moments of our lives gentlemen. And Raphael,” said Michelangelo, wiping away a fake tear.

Raphael huffed, pretending to be annoyed but he was just as excited as his brothers were. “Let’s get these pancakes,” he said, pushing the door open, stepping inside, and was immediately overwhelmed and overtaken by sights and smells that were unfamiliar to the fifteen-year-old turtle. “This...this is amazing.”

“Yea,” Leonardo said in wonder, blue eyes constantly flickering from the humans sitting in booths happily eating their meals, to servers wading through aisles and tight corners serving food, to the cooks preparing the meals in the back. “I can’t believe we’re in an actual restaurant.”

“If we ever go back home and you end up in our world, you can come to my Uncle Frankie’s restaurant,” Sunita said. “It’s exclusively for mutants and yokai.”

“You have that in your world?” Michelangelo asked, awed at that aspect. A public place where you could go to without being feared or looked at in disgust? He longed for something like that for him and his brothers and his father.

“You don’t?” said Donnie, and the quadruplets shook their head. “I will kidnap all of you so you can experience the Hidden City. I said what I said and I meant what I said. My brothers will help me, there is no question about it.”

“Isn’t kidnapping illegal?” said Michelangelo.

“Is it really kidnapping if it’s another version of yourself?” Casey said with a shit-eating grin. “What’s gonna happen? You call the cops and say, ‘oh no I’m being kidnapped by an alternate version of me and I’m being forced to explore a city made for me and my kind and have fun?’ No, you go along with it.”

Neely leaned in between Casey and Michelangelo, “We can continue the semantics of kidnapping yourself or we could order pancakes,” She said, waving around a menu in her hands. 

“Waffles. They are superior to the pancake. They’re bigger, fluffier, and can handle a shit ton of syrup without out getting soggy,” said Leon, grinning at Neely’s glare. “My twin has scientific evidence.” 

Donnie shrugged, not sorry in the slightest. “Sorry Neely, but it’s true.”

“I think french toast sticks are superior,” Angelo chimed in. “Sweet, crunch and soft, all in one. You can stick them in a ton of syrup and they won’t get soggy!”

“How about we order pancakes?” Raph said, holding his hands in surrender. If his siblings kept it up, they would start an all-out war and end up getting kicked out of IHOP. Then they won’t get anything to eat. “That’s what we came here for. Plus getting waffles from IHOP isn’t worth it, they’re too small to be classified as a real waffle.”

“What’s a fake waffle?” asked Leonardo. “How would you determine a fake waffle?”

“Can we just get pancakes?” said April, “We’re holding up the line I think.”

True enough, there were a few people who were standing behind the entrance door, trying to get inside the building. 

“I know what we’re getting,” Neely said. “Let’s go order.”

Neely walked up to the counter and started talking to the worker behind the counter, beginning the order. The rest of the group sat down in the waiting booths and were joined by Neely sliding in the booth with them, holding on tightly to a long sheet of paper. 

“What’d you get?” said Casey right as Neely slid into the booth. 

“Oh, I got several of those family bundles, with the pancakes and eggs. Swapped out the bacon and sausage for chicken strips-”

“Fuck ya chicken strips,” Mikey snickered. 

“2016 called, they want their vines back,” Donnie snarked playfully. 

“Vine? What’s Vine?” questioned Donatello. 

Casey took a deep sigh, locking her fingers together before turning to April. “April?” 

The redhead furrowed her eyebrows together, “Yes?”

“You know what Vine is right?”

April nodded her head.

“Cool, cool, cool,” said Casey, “So why didn’t you introduce the boys to such a glorious creation?”

“Kinda hard to think about vines when your whole world was turned upside down by aliens with brains in their stomachs and giant talking turtles,” April explained, “So Vine kinda took a backseat.”

“Fair, I suppose,” replied Casey. “I guess this means we have to introduce you all to Vine while we wait for our food.” 

Casey pulled out her phone, opened up YouTube, started playing a fifteen-minute vine compilation, and set her phone at the edge of the table so everyone could see the screen clearly. Within a few minutes, the quadruplets were sold on vines, manically giggling and breaking down into raucous laughter with the others. As they watched several vine compilations, passersby and customers next to them occasionally tried to shush them and tell them to quiet down but Leon replied with a cocky, “Only God can shut this dumbass up and you ain’t God, you measly mortal”, immediately shutting down any further dissent from customers. 

Sunita snorted into her hand, trying her hardest not to dissolve into gut-busting laughter, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. She made the mistake of locking eyes with Leon and lost her sense of control. She doubled over in laughter, pounding her fist against the table as she wrapped her arm around her stomach and continued laughing. Her laughter was infectious, and soon everyone was laughing as hard as she was. 

Soon, an IHOP employee walked up to their table and started placing their bags of food and drinks onto the table, and when they finished, they wished the group of teenagers to have a wonderful time and to enjoy their food before walking away, presumably to serve another customer. Neely started handing out the bags of food to Raph, Donnie, Leonardo, and Donatello trusting that they wouldn’t consume the food before they had gotten back to the lair while Casey handed out the drinks sitting in carry out holders to Michelangelo, Leon, Mikey and picked up one herself. 

“Ready to head back and dig in?” asked Casey with a wide grin. 

Michelangelo beamed. “I’m always ready to dig in!”

* * *

Riding the subway back to the lair had gone without a hitch and the group walked back into the lair with food in hand, still hot. They all gathered near the benches, Michelangelo pulling out some of the food and fixing a plate with two pancakes, some eggs, and a few pieces of chicken for Master Splinter. He placed two small packets of syrup on the plate and went into the dojo, stopping in front of the door leading to Master Splinter’s room. 

Michelangelo slowly knocked on the door. “Sensei? We made it back from IHOP and I have some breakfast for you,” he said nervously, shuffling his foot as he waited. 

The door slid open and was met with Master Splinter standing over him. He handed over the food, “Hope you like it, Sensei,” he said with an anxious smile. 

“Thank you, Michelangelo. I’m certain I will enjoy this,” He said, taking the plate of food from his youngest. “Why don’t you go enjoy your breakfast with your siblings?”

“Okay!” With that, Michelangelo ran out of the dojo and back to the common area, where everyone was gathered around Casey’s laptop, eating and watching more vines. Michelangelo joined them and started eating. The pancakes vs. waffles vs french toast sticks wormed its way into the conversation-Michelangelo is now firmly in the camp of french toast sticks solely because of its name.

“Whoever decided that you should toast the french and make them into sticks is a genius,” Michelangelo said earnestly.

“That’s not literal, doofus,” Donatello said, finishing the last of his food. “This is delicious!” 

“What do you guys want to watch?” Casey asked, “I think-wait, who’s calling me over Skype?” 

Casey moved her mouse cursor over the green accept button and clicked it, seeing an older woman with black hair tied back in a loose bun, several strands of purple hair loosely hanging in the front, ghosting across her face. The woman’s face lit up in what seemed to be joy when she saw Casey.

“Casey!”

“Aunt Angel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!! <3!! Thanks for reading!! Come talk to me on twitter @cosmonautstitch!


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